Gender, Commensality and Community among the Airo-Pai of West Amazonia (Secoya, Western-Tukanoan Speaking)

GENDER, COMMENSALITY AND COMMUNITY AMONG THE AIRO-PAI OF WEST AMAZONIA (SECOYA, WESTERN-TUKANOAN SPEAKING).

Submitted by Luisa Elvira Belaunde Olschewski for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the London School of Economics, University of London March, 1992

ABSTRACT

This thesis explores Airo-Pai community organization through an examination of their conceptions and practices of livelihood. Fieldwork was carried out among the Airo-pai of north-eastern Peru, who are also known as Secoya in the anthropological literature. Their techniques of food-production combine horticulture, hunting, fishing, and gathering. Production is principally for consumption and trade with outsiders is limited. The thesis shows that Airo-Pai community life is rooted in the complementarity of the spouses. Nevertheless, the married couple and their young children do not constitute a closed unit of production or consumption. Rather, in marriage, men and women become fully productive and able to interact with the other members of the community both as gendered individuals and as a couple. Marriage allows both spouses to solicit from, and to offer to, their neighbours assistance and food. I examine the social organization of work, distribution and consumption with special emphasis on daily meals and the offering of cooked food among the women of the community. Throughout the study, indigenous conceptions of producing, giving and receiving will be discussed. An analysis of Airo-Pai shamanistic thought and ideas of personhood reveals the meaning of crafting and food-production for them. It is shown that these activities are associated with the 'raising' of individuals, whether these are children, adults who take the metaphorical position of children, plants, animals and other beings of their cosmology. The thesis demonstrates that the achievement of a productive and fertile community - "living well" - is the notion which encompasses the major concerns of life for the Airo-Pai.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS INTRODUCTION



11 13

a) Theoretical debate b) Outline of the thesis C) The Afro-Pal and the 'whites' d) Methods of fieldwork

14 23 24 26

CHAPTER 1: HISTORY AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION SECTION 1: Social organization a) Present day patterns of residence organization b) Earlier patterns of social today c) The Airo-Pai d) Names

SECTION 2: Marriage conversation pairs



29 29 29 32 33 35 35

SECTION 2: Brief history of the Airo-Pai a) From the 16th century to 1880 b) From 1880 to 1940 c) From 1941 to date 1) The Peruvian Napo basin 2) The Peruvian Putumayo basin d) Recent history of the community of Vencedor-Huajoya CHAPTER 2: KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE RECKONING SECTION 1: Airo-Pai kinship a) The relationship nomenclature 1) Charter of terms of address and reference 2) Cognatic kinship 1) Oblique equations 4) Adding information to kinship terms b) The notion of kin 1) Close kin: non-marriageable kin 2) Far kin: marriageable kin 3) Effective affines



35



36 37 37 39 39 43 44 44 45

46 46 47 48 48 49 49 50

a) G + 1 female conversation pair 1) Avuncular marriage 2) Understanding the oblique equations b) (3+1 male conversation pair 1) Alternate generations marriage

50

52 52 52 52 5

2) Understanding the oblique equations c) G+2 female conversation pair 1) Second degree patrilateral cross-cousin marriage

54 54 54



SECTION 3: A model of symmetrical alliance

56

a) Second degree bilateral cross-cousin marriage b) Residential exogamy C) Comparison with the Eastern-Tukanoan peoples of the Vaupes SECTION 4: The circulation of brides a) Offerings to matrilateral kin b) Same-sex siblings-in-law c) Marriage decision making 1) Case study



56 58 58 59



60 60 61 62

SECTION 5: The philosophy of 'far' marriage



64

a) The theme of the two sisters b) Inter-female and inter-male conceptions of affinity

64 65

CHAPTER kmE 'UNRIPE-PEOPLE' AND ThE LIVING SECTION 1: The 'other side' and shamanism





67 68

a) Hallucinogens taking and singing sessions b) Shamanic chants and experience of the other-world c) Conceptions of the cosmos

69 70 72

SECTION 2: Men and women in the eyes of the 'unripe-people' a) The world of the 'unripe-people' b) Making the human 'nest' 1) The male aspect of the womb 2) The female aspect of the womb 3) The male and female womb SECTION 3: Ecological observations





74 74 76 76 77 78 80



a) The parrot (4'nazonafarinosa) b) The oropendola (Icteridus chysocepha1us) c) Summary SECTION 4: The symbolical constitution of parenthood a) Oropendolas and fathers b) Parrots and mothers 1) The carrier 2) The female reproductive cycle



80 80 81 85 85 85 85

86 6

c) Nutritious larvae: cross-sex fertility d) Wife/mother and husband/father e) Airo-Pai cosmos



87 88 90

SECTION 5: The social content of metaphor



91

CHAPTER 4: PERSONHOODI SOCIAlIZATION AND GENDERING Part 1: THE RAISING OF CHILDREN SECTION 1: Basic notions of personhood a) Upbringing and personhood b) The notion of thought c) Learning by imitation and by listening to the 'advices' d) The permeability of the person and conceptions of illness e) Conceptions of work and ownership of the products of work f) Values for the community 1) Erectness of posture 2) Craziness 3) Anger SECTION 2: A root metaphor for community life



93 94 96 99 100 102 102 103 103 105

Part 2: PUBERTY AND ThE GENDERING OF GIRLS AND BOYS FOR WORK SECTION 3: Female puberty



108

a) The production of menstruating women b) The slowing down of menstruating women c) The origin of menstruation in mythology SECTION 4: Male puberty

109 109 112



114

a) The 'advice' of the 'living-people' b) The house as a model of community and fatherhood SECTION 5: AFTER PUBERTY



117

a) Menstrual blood and the other-world b) Menstruation and the order of life in the settlement CHAPTER 5: MARITAL COMPANIONSHIP SECTION 1: The marriage ceremony a) Lying together in the hammock b) The wedding feast c) The marital 'advice'

115 116



121 121



SECTION 2: Learning to be a spouse



117 118

121 123 125

127 7

a) Living with one's parents-in-law b) Providing for one's parents-in-law c) A dispute between Jose and Juana SECTION 3: The division of tasks

127 128 130



132

a) The production and offering of durable objects 1) handicrafts 2) Western goods 3) A husband's generosity b) Reciprocity of services between spouses 1) Communicating through one's children SECTION 4: Conjugal togetherness



132 132 136 137 139 141



142

a) Eating from the same plate b) Bathing together C) Assisting one another d) Talking to one another 1) Avoiding making the other spouse 'angry' 2) The special hours before dawn e) Sexual partnership SECTION 5: Disapproved behaviour

142 142 143 143 143 145 145



147

a) The watchful husband b) The wandering wife C) Personal autonomy and conjugal harmony SECTION 6: Gender values and brideservice

148 148 149

CHAPTER 6: THE VEGETABLE FOOD CYCLE SECTION 1: The beautiful land

150





155

156

a) The horticultural cycle b) The ownership of gardens c) To produce plants is to bestow care upon them d) The cultivated plants as 'people' SECTION 2: The communal organization of gardening a) The working party b) Planting and drinking C) The harvest d) Summary SECTION 3: Preparing and offering drink a) Drinks

156 157



162 163 169 169 172 173 173



174



174 8

b) Bread c) The social implications of manioc processih methods SECTION 4: The inter-female gifts of bread a) Baking and giving bread b) The inter-personal network of gifts within the settlement C) Mutual gifts of bread d) Giving bread on behalf of the married pair e) Giving bread on behalf of the community CHAFIEK 7: TILE MEAT CYCLE

SECTION 1: Knowing about the prey

175

177 178



179 180 181 183 184 185



185

a) Providing meat for the meals b) The prey in the other-world 1) The land mammals 2) The fish c) The gift of the masters/parents of the prey

185 188 189 191 193

SECTION 2: The social organization of hunting and fishing a) The double circulation of meat: raw and cooked b) Mutual gifts of cooked meat SECTION 3: The pepper-pot SECTION 4: The meals



a) Description of the meal b) Eating and trusting

GLOSSARY



195 198 200

201 204





206 209



213

APPENDICES

1: DEMOGRAPHIC DATA



2: AIRO-PAI COOKING RECIPES 3: AIRO-PAI SHAMANIC SONGS

BIBUOGRAPHY

194

201

SECTION 5: WOMEN. MEN AND COMMENSALITY CONCLUSION



217 221 227



231

9

LIStOF MAPS Amazonia 1: Indigenous communities of North-West 2: Afro-Pal communities in Peru 3: the community of Huajoya 4: Cultivated area of the community of Huajoya



30 30 40 40

LIST OF FIGURES 1: G+ 1 female conversation pair 2: Oblique equation and the constitution of the G+ 1 female conversation pair 3: G+ 1 male conversation pair 4: Oblique equation and the constitution of the G+1 male conversation pair 5: G+2 female conversation pair 6: Second degree patrilateral cross-cousin marriage 7: Airo-Pai affinal and kin terms, male ego 8: Airo-Pai affinal and kin terms, female ego 9: The wedding of Juan's son point of view of the two sisters in G+2 10: Marriage from the 11: Afro-Pal cosmos 12: Cacique bird (icteridus sp.) 13: Oropendola nests hanging from a branch 14: Parrot, toucan and woodpecker 15: Oropendola making its nest 16: Airo-Pai man making a hammock 17: Airo-Pai woman wearing facial design 18: Husband and wife weaving the leaves for the roof preparing manioc beer 19: Mother and daughter 20: Garden house 21: Older woman baking manioc bread 22: Meat and chili sauce 24: Genealogical and marrital ties in Vencedor-Huajoya 25: A man and his brother-in-law married to two sisters 26: Marriage across generations

51 51

53 53 55 55 57 57 63 63 73 82 82 83 83 84 84 144 144 160 160 208 217 218 219

LIST OF TABLES 1: Production configuration 2: Principal crops of the Afro-Pal of Peru

133 159

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My greatest debt is to the Airo-Pai and in particular to the people of the community of Huajoya. They are too many to name individually, so I thank them all for their generosity and tolerance. Many others helped me immensely in Peru. I want to thank Andrea Pogliani, Rita Ferreli, Monica Omodei and Guiseppe Baiguini for their hospitality and companionship. Many thanks to my family who have given me constant support throughout this project and to those in Iquitos and Lima who encouraged me with their friendship and assistance: Flicka Barclay, Fernando Santos Granero, Clara de SantosGranero, Alberto Chirif, Jurg Gasche, Carlos Chirinos and Jorge Casanova. Many thanks to the staff and the students of the London School of Economics for their valuable assistance. In particular, I would like to thank my supervisor Dr. Joanna Overmg who was unfailing in her encouragement, practical aid and guidance at all stages of this work. I also thank all who offered their companionship: Cecilia McCallum, Peter Gow, Graham Townsley, Leonardo Campos Filhio, Elena Morilla, Mathiew Hodes, Aria Maria Bolognesi, Selina Raguz, Ernesto Yague, Victor Chisese, Maia Green, Hugh Corrigan and many thanks to Janet Noble who proof-read this thesis. Research for this thesis was funded by the London School of Economics, the Central Research Fund (University of London), the Royal Anthropological Institute and the Institute of Latin American Studies (University of London).

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INTRODUCTION This thesis is an ethnography of the Airo-Pai (Forest-People) of north-eastern Peru. It draws an account of how community is constructed from the inside through the daily-life of co-residents in the settlement. It shows that the daily-life of Airo-Pai men and women is centred around food-related activities and the raising of children. In this thesis I attempt to take seriously what the Airo-Pai do and say in order to present their conceptions of their livelihood. When discussing the organization of their settlements, the Airo-Pai endlessly repeat that None should live well". Far from appealing to principles of chieftainship and residence, they appeal to the effective capability of individuals to contribute to their community. In this thesis, I will explore the values to which the AiroPai are strongly attached and which guide their discourse and practice. The Airo-Pai are not a 'pristine' Amerindian people. To pretend so would be to deny five centuries of turbulent contact with Europeans. They are, however, very distinct from their Ouichua and mestizo neighbours with regards to both material and non-material culture, especially as it relates to the tone of social relationships in the settlement. Like many other ethnographers of Amazonian people, I was impressed by the peaceful atmosphere of the settlements. I rarely heard a child cry and even less people quarrelling. I soon realized that such harmony was not automatic, but rather actively fostered by each adult person. The Airo-Pai are highly sensitive to conflict and indeed they think of themselves as people who are, as they say, easily inclined to 'anger'. They have specific views on this point. In their understanding, 'anger' drives people apart emotionally and spatially, and induces individuals to murder both through physical violence or through sorcery. By contrast, co-operation renders possible the raising of children and the "increasing" of kin, as the Airo-Pai say. This study aims to investigate how the men and women of a settlement work together in order to raise their children together. The method adopted in this ethnography places the spontaneous indigenous exegesis of social relations at the heart of the analysis. The Airo-Pai have a complex understanding of their place in relation to the other beings of their cosmos, in particular with regard to the spirits of the dead, the "unripe-people" (iMa-paD. This thesis seeks to show that in order to grasp Airo-Pai social organization one must examine their notions of agency within their wider conception of reality, which encompasses both the living and the dead. I will follow the lead of recent works in the ethnography of other 13

low-land Amerindians and explore the areas of kinship, marriage, the economy, the life cycle, the cosmo-vision and shamanism toward an understanding of Airo-Pai sociality. a) Theoretical debate Most Americanists would probably agree that the major focus of low-land Amerindian economies is people rather than things, but there is considerable disagreement about the principles which are seen to underlie the social organization of labour and how it pertains to people. Rivière (1984) describes well our difficulties in understanding the egalitarian aspects of the social and political organization of low-land Amerinclian societies, especially those of the Guianas. He shows that Amazonian societies have few mechanisms for corporate group decision making and that therefore ethnographers have frequently described them for what they lack rather than for what they have. Rivière suggests a model of political economy for the Guianas based on "the management of human resources" (1984:91). He points out that scarcity is not of natural resources (land, game, etc.) because these are normally abundant (or at least they are usually perceived to be abundant) and accessible to everyone. Rather, it is "people who are in short supply" (1984:90) for providing the labour to transform natural resources. He specifies that "there is a relative scarcity of safe, familiar people compared with dangerous strangers" (1984:90), and concludes that wealth is conceived in terms of control over people. Following the line of Meillassoux (1981), he argues that this is achieved through male control over women's labour. Meillassoux (1981:21), speaking about pre-capitalist economies in general, sees the formation of the sexual division of labour, itself as entailing the subjugation of women. He argues that kinship institutions such as marriage were imposed upon women by men as the means through which men constrained women to gain control over both the means of reproduction and labour. This model stresses the relationship between affmally linked men and the exchange value of women as at the heart of the socio-economic process. In agreement with this theoretical framework and Turner's (1979:168) analysis of the Ge and Bororo societies, Rivière argues that marriage is the crucial institution of the 'economy of people' in Amazonia. For young men to have access to the productive and reproductive abilities of women, they must live uxorilocally and work for their fathers-inlaw, and to a minor extent for their mothers-in-law (Rivière 1984:93). He extends his argument to virilocal societies such as the eastern-Tukanoan speaking peoples of the Vaupes. He argues that in the virilocal context, male control over female capabilities is 14

ensured through the "routinization" of women's work which restricts their freedom of movement (1987:189). Rivière stresses the effect of productive aspects of social relationships and looks at their processual side as social relations develop through time. This emphasis on the importance of familiar people for the creation of a safe 'inside' and community organization have inspired my own analysis of the Airo-pai communities. However, the argument that Amazonian societies are founded upon male control over female labour does not mesh well with the Airo-Pai material. First, it is of ethnographic significance that the Western-Tukanoan speaking Afro-Pal are noticeably different from the EasternTukanoan peoples of the Vaupà'. Although traditionally the Afro-Pal were also virilocal, their diet and food-processing methods are very distinct from the ones found in the Vaupés. Among the Airo-Pai, corn is a staple and it has great symbolic value. Unlike Eastern-Tukanoan mythology, Afro-Pal myth makes no reference to ancestral Anaconda figures, but rather are centred on the figures of Moon and a pair of sisters, who are at once the daughters of Corn and of Tapir. Previous studies of the social organization of Western-Tukanoan peoples are moulded on studies of Eastern-Tukanoan groups and state the existence of patrilineal groups (see Vickers 1989:179-212). On the other hand, Langdon (1982:357) and Cipolletti (1988) remark that patrilineal solidarity is played down and does not seem to be an organizing principle of Western-Tukanoan society. Langdon rightly stresses that gender relations among the Western-Tukanoan Siona are remarkably egalitarian and that women's work is not devalued, unlike some reports for the Eastern-Tukanoan groups. For many anthropologists, male domination over women in Amazonia (and universally) is taken as a fact that needs to be described and integrated within the analysis 2. The social is seen as articulated by men while women are confined to the 'domestic' and transacted between men. In this thesis, I am not going to discuss whether Airo-Pai women are 'really' dominated by their men or not. Recent anthropological literature has discussed at length the 'male bias' of anthropological theories and the difficulties found

'These people have been studied by Goldman (1963), Reichel-Dolmatoff (1971), C Hugh-Jones (1979), S. Hugh-Jones (1979), Jackson (1983), Arhem (1981). 2

See for instance, Taylor (1985), S. Hugh-Jones (1979), Turner (1979), Arhem (1981), Harner (1975), Gregor (1977), Rivière (1984), Bamberger(1974). 15

in speaking about 'sexual inequality' 3 . I intend to examine closely what Afro-Pal men and women do and say, and from this analysis, I hope, will emerge their complex understanding of cross-sex and same-sex relations. It will be seen that to argue that men appropriate the social value of women's labour would be a reduction that would do injustice to the place of women in Afro-Pal society. Overing (1986) points out that several anthropologists working on gender (like Bamberger (1974:277) and Ortner (1974:69) tend to assume "that male obligations give men status, while female obligations coitrain women". She shows for the Piaroa of the Guianas, that both male and female work is highly valued; and that it is their understanding that social life is possible only if both genders co-operate in order to carry out the work of production and reproduction. In line with the interpretation of such lowland ethnographers as Goldman (1963:253) and Clastres (1977:5), she remarks that tropical forest Amerindians usually think of social relationships in terms of a principle of personal autonomy; and that while they strongly value generosity and sharing, they are "allergic" to the notion of command. The main concern of the Piaroa men, she argues, is not to secure male domination over women, but rather to teach the youngsters of both sexes the skills for personal autonomy, production and reproduction which constitute their conception of sociality. Overing (l988b) stresses that the processes of socialization are an essential part of the daily life and the social organization of Amazonian peoples. In

this thesis, I will use this theoretical framework to analyse cross-generational relationships among the Afro-Pal, and in particular the tie between parents-in-law and children-in-law. Before examining this point, I would like to discuss the notion of 'brideservice' as it is currently used in the anthropological literature. Collier and Rosaldo (1981) have drawn a correlation between forms of social organization and cultural conceptions of gender. They identify two contrasting types of social formations. In 'bridewealth' societies, "goods given on marriage are seen as payment for rights to a woman's labour, sexuality and offspring" (1981:278). While in 'brideservice' societies "all adults control the distribution of their produce, and so, ongoing relationships depend upon free and continuing gifts and services through which co-operating persons organize the distribution of food" (198 1:278). "Brideservice gifts are not payments but proofs of equality in status, and what people readily negotiate has

3See forinstance, Leacock(198l:11l), Strathern (1987:275), Overing (1986), Coffier and Yanisako (1987), Moore (1988:12-53). 16

less to do with obligation than the recognition of others as peers" (198 1:279). The category of brideservice societies encomp'ies the relatively egalitarian hunting and gathering peoples and those that have a mixed economy of hunting, gathering and small scale horticulture, like many Amazonian groups and in this case the Airo-Pai. Collier and Rosaldo associate different cultural conceptions of gender with each of these two types of system. Bridewealth people, they say, value female reproductive capabilities, whereas brideservice peoples "celebrate sexual prowess" (198 1:279). These authors claim that marriage in brideservice groups enables a man to become an effective social actor of equal status to other men, whereas for a woman marriage marks a decline in status and autonomy (1981:284). They go on to argue that men secure wives for themselves "not by providing for wives and children, but, rather, by distributing produce to senior inlaws, so as to win support and commitment from those who most influence wives" (1981:285). Whereas the characterization of brideservice economy is relevant to the Airo-Pai case (I will discuss this point below), such a 'formation' is not always associated with the cultural values these authors stipulate. In this thesis it will be shown that the Airo-Pai put great emphasis on both motherhood and fatherhood, and that the one cannot be thought of without the other because they are constitutive of each other. Airo-Pai marriage cannot be seen as the institution through which a man secures a wife for himself, because gender is not constituted before marriage, but rather produced within the relationship of marriage. Strathern (1988) has argued that anthropologists tend to assume that gender is produced before other relations, but the same logic cannot be imposed on Melanesian societies. Gow (1991) and McCallum (1989) state that Amazonian ethnographers must also ask how gender identities are created in social relations (Gow 1991:120). Their proposition is consistent with the centrality of the processes of socialization stressed by Overing. In this thesis, I will argue that the relationship between parents-in-law and children-in-law should be examined in association with indigenous ideas about the acquisition of gender identity, practical skills and the creation of relationships of cooperation that will allow both spouses to become autonomous individuals in adulthood. It will be shown that during the first years of marriage, the parents of both newlyweds pool their efforts together in order to assist, exhort and push their children to form a stable and productive couple and to bear their grand-children. Low-land Amerindian notions of parenting have rarely been the focus of specialized attention, although in recent years they have attracted growing interest. Following Rivière 17

(1969) and Kaplan (Overmg) (1977), most Americanists probably agree that marriage cannot be thought of as the link between corporate groups and that descent is not a very useful category for the study of most Amazonian societies. Santos Granero (1991:163) points out that as a consequence "the relationship that has been most privileged - either as a locus of political authority, or as the matrix of the ideological representation of power relations in general" - has been that of father-in-law and son-in-law and brothersin-law4. Santos Granero shows that the Amuesha of central Peru stress instead the fatherchild (and especially the father-son) relationship as "the matrix upon which to model power relations of all kinds". He demonstrates that the Amuesha conceive of the parentchild relationship as a hierarchy based on 'love' and its concrete manifestation in the lifegiving acts of the parental figure. He stresses the relevance of the father-child bond for the representation of leadership in several Amazonian societies. This argument is relevant to the Airo-Pai case. It will be shown that the notions of 'raising' and 'being raised' are at the core of Afro-Pal representations of power and co-operation between kin and affines. I will argue that the capability for 'raising' children, people, plants, animals and other beings of their cosmology, constitutes a root metaphor for the 'good life' and the responsibilities of the community. Gow (1991) approaches the parent-child relationship from the angle of livelihood. He states that for the Piro of the Bajo Urubamba "the raising of children is not something which exists outside of the social relations of native people, for it constitutes the core idiom of kin ties.. .the memory of care received in childhood will organize the whole of adult life" (1991:121). He examines the value of feeding people (and particularly children) with 'real food' and of 'remembering' those who fed you in the past. Following Fienup-Riordhan (1983) and Gregory (1982) he suggests that food-related activities should be examined from the point of view of their role in "the production of people" and the construction of gender identity (1991:121). The relationship of marriage, he argues, allows the spouses to satisfy each other's desires for food, objects and sex, and to engage in 'relations of caring' through the making and feeding of children. He shows that

livelihood is an integral part of the production of kinship in a social not a pre-social sense because the category of 'real' kin is founded on the experience of acts of caring and not

See for instance, Kaplan (1975); Turner (1979); Rivière (1984); Siskind (1973); Harner (1973;) Gregor (1977). Santos-Granero notes that another relationship closely studied has been that between older and younger sibling (Kensinger (19 85:23)). 18

on a structural "principle" of genealogy, nor on a "principle" of locality. "To be real", he says "a relationship must be enacted" (1991:194). As McCallum (1989:18) points out, Gow emphasises the social relationships in motion and his model is processual (no one relationship is its crux). Food-related activities are seen to constitute the social living itself, and not a 'domestic' domain upon which it can be constructed. In this model, she explains, "'society' is not so much made out of transformed children's bodies, as made during and after the process of their manufacture" (1989:18). She develops her own processual model for the Cashinahua of the Purus and examines in detail indigenous conceptions of agency and transactions in the sphere of food production and sexuality. She begins by asserting that in brideservice economies (as characterized by Collier and Rosaldo (1981)) "relationships are constructed in actions, in service or labour" (McCallum 1989:28). She quotes Strathern (1985) who says that the crucial difference between brideservice and bridewealth is located in the value placed upon labour and things. In bndeservice economies (like most Amazonian systems), value is located in the act of doing things for people with whom one is in a specific relationship, and not in the product of the action itself. Thus, a thing cannot come to stand for a person. By contrast, in bridewealth economies (like the Melanesian systems), things can stand for persons and aspects of persons. As McCallum points out, this definition of brideservice economy is very useful for the study of Amazonian economies because the focus is not on 'things', but rather on the inter-personal relationships which are created in the action of producing, transacting with and consuming things. Gow's and McCallum's theoretical framework has inspired my analysis of the Afro-Pal community as a place where life processes are enacted and kinship is created through the bestowal of assistance and feeding. I will examine in detail the social logic underlying the Airo-Pai socio-economic process of: production, distribution of raw products, culinary preparation, distribution of cooked products and consumption. I will argue that the process from production to consumption must be examined as a whole in order to understand the organization of co-operation and food-sharing within the community. It will be shown that each stage of the socio-economic process combines individual, conjugal and communal aspects, and, that at each stage cross-sex and same-sex ties are played out. For this reason, it will be seen that Sahlins'(1972:48) scheme of the domestic mode of production does not fully apply to the Afro-Pal case, and that the married pair cannot be seen as an economic atom. Some tasks are carried out by the spouses together, others require the co-operation of the whole settlement, and other tasks are performed by 19

same-sex groups which cross-cut household boundaries and are freely formed by the individuals involved. Contrary to the argument of Collier and Rosaldo on bridservice societies, it will be shown that women's work is as 'social' as man's work. Overing (1989, 1992a) has argued for the Piaroa that the community is a force of production and a unit of consumption. Nevertheless, collective order is not imposed upon the individual because the Piaroa (like other Amerindian peoples) also have a high 01

valuation personal autonomy. In agreement with Goldman's (1963: 274-5) analysis of the Cubeo, she states that the valuation of community and the valuation of the individual are not disassociated, but rather they are conceived of as intrinsically linked, and that such a linkage constitutes a distinctively Amazonian "aesthetics of production". She quotes Thomas (1982) who remarks that the community among the Pemon of the Guianas is not an homogeneous entity of solidarity, and that beyond the sibling sets each individual is free to develop his or her own social field of interaction. Thomas says that "in Pemon life, social life and personal harmony are intimately connected, and it is impossible to understand the one without the other" (1982:159). Overing rightly points out that the achievement of informality and a mood of geniality are key principles of social organization of the Cubeo, the Pemon and the Piaroa societies. She stresses the importance of sharing and generosity with food for the building up of solidarity and high morale within the settlement, which she suggests should be understood as a "community of nurture". These arguments are relevant to the examination of food-related activities in Airo-Pai settlements. I will demonstrate that the organization of communal cooperation and foodsharing is not centralized, but rather it is played out by individuals who establish specific inter-personal relationships between themselves. I will argue that the notion of 'mutuality' is the most appropriate for describing the social logic which underlies the flow of assistance and food between community members. This examination will lead me to make some observations on the concept of reciprocity as it relates to sharing. Both Price (1975:5) and Ingold (1986:229) have discussed the difficulties of Sahlins' (1972:185-275) definition of 'generalized reciprocity'. Although their approaches differ, both authors stress that the notion of 'sharing' should be demarcated from that of 'reciprocity' because the former does not entail an expectation of return, which the latter does. Ingold makes a distinction between 'sharing in' and 'sharing out'. He defines the former as "a principle of unrestricted access" whereby no difference is made between giver and receiver. The latter, he says, is "a distributive movement" from giver to receiver (1986:233). In this 20

thesis, it will be shown that the concept of 'sharing in' does not apply to the Airo-Pai case because the asymmetrical relationship between giver and receiver is at the core of their socio-economic process. As McCallum (1989:206) points out for the Cashinahua, the act of giving people food (and things) is tantamount to making them kin, whereas theft (to take something which has not been given

to

oneself) is tantamount to denying

kinship and creating enmity. I will argue that the act of giving food cannot be understood in terms of 'reciprocity' because the stress is not put on the expectation of return but on the generosity of the giver. Nevertheless, there is an expectation of 'mutuality' because all adults are equally expected to give each other food with generosity and to receive food from each other. Much of the literature on communal food-sharing systems in Amazonia is focused on the movement of raw meat, and there are few detailed descriptions of the circulation of cooked food5 . For the Airo-Pai, however, sharing out cooked food is as important (if not more) than the sharing out of raw food. An examination of the sharing patterns of cooked food will highlight the place of women as effective social actors in the construction of community. It will be shown that the offering of food sets up an arena where the interpersonal relationships between the women and men of the settlement are continuously redefined. Eating the food prepared by and touched by others is also seen to entail the danger of 'contamination' with physical and moral attributes from individual to individual. For this reason, women are suspicious of the food prepared by others and at the same time they compete to display their own cooking skills. Yet they also accept the food offered by others and feed their children with it. Through the cooked food which is circulated between the women, both the men and women of the settlement take part in the process of raising each other's children. In this way, they effectively regard themselves as a community of individuals who are raising their children together. An examination of Airo-Pai livelihood would not be complete without an analysis of their complex cosmology and the way they relate

it to

specific aspects of social life. I will

therefore look at the Airo-Pai cosmo-vision in order to explicate the meaning that food production and community has for them in their wider understanding of reality. The method adopted here will be to allow the indigenous exegesis of their own symbolism to

5 0n the organization of consumption of Amazonian peoples see for instance, Crocker

(1985:65) for the Bororo, Johnson (1978:288-91) for the Machiguenga, Mentore (1987) for the Waiwai, C. Hugh-Jones (1978) on the groups of Pira-Paraná. 21

lead me as far as possible. Several studies have stressed the role of shamanism in the economic processes' and in the life cycle of individuals. Descola (1986:401) has demonstrated that the Jivaro Achuar conceive of 'nature' as a social category. Hunting, fishing, gathering and gardening are understood to involve 'social' relationships with spirits of plants and animals. Food is another area of rich symbolic elaborations which is highly pertinent to low-land Amerindian social organization. Following Levi-Strauss (1970), the link of the social with food and sex has been the focus of attention. C. HughJones (1979), has explored the symbolism of cooking methods and sexuality with regard to the organization of Barasana society. Given the inapplicability of corporate-group models, the ritual significance of food and the body has been suggested as an organizing principle of low-land Amerindian societies. For instance, Seegers, Da Matta and Viveiros dc Castro (1979) have argued that Amazonian societies are oriented towards the construction of the individual and its body rather than towards the definition of groups. Crocker (1985:86), has also argued that genealogical ties cannot be seen as the basis of Bororo society; and he demonstrates that diet, residence and ritual are the substantive grounds for the creation of the social. The ethnographies of several Amazonian peoples report that vital entities, types of food and immortal powers must be incorporated by the individual in order to grow up a healthy and gendered body capable of producing and enjoying food, objects and children, and to generate social life in all its complexities7. In this thesis, an examination of Airo-Pai conceptions of the 'other side' of reality, personhood and agency will facilitate a better grasp of their conceptions of work, fertility and community. Rivière (1969:229, 1984:90) remarks that the difference between safe 'insiders' in the settlement and dangerous 'outsiders' plays an organizing role in Guianese societies. The inside itself is constituted by the problematic incorporation of dangerous affines who may find difficulties in assimilating themselves into the community of their spouses. Following this line, Overing (1981:161) has suggested that underlying the dissimilar forms of social organization in Amazonia there is a wSimilar philosophy of society", that "the universe exists, life exists, society exists, only insofar as there is contact and proper mixing among 'See for instance, Colson (1989), Overing (1990), Vickers (1975), Reichel-Dolmatoff (1971), Crocker (1985), Descola (1986), Brown (1985). 'See for instance, Viveiros deCastro (1986) for the Araweté, S. Hugh-Jones (1979) for the eastern-Tukanoan peoples of the Vaupes, Overing (1988b) for the Piaroa, Crocker (1985) for the Bororo. 22

things that are different from one another". This thesis seeks to show that for the AfroPai, the difference between men and women is another locus for 'proper mixing'. The creation of a safe inside requires the balancing between gendered human beings who should be 'alike' and yet 'different' enough to provide the fundamental dynamics of livelihood. b) Outline of the thesis In Chapter one I give the basic historical and ethnographic background to the NapoPutumayo area. I describe the main features of Afro-Pal earlier and present social organization, and give a brief history covering the time for which historical records are available. Chapter two is an account of kinship and marriage reckoning from an Airo-Pai perspective. I examine the indigenous practice of arranging marriage in formal conversations between separate same-sex conversation pairs and argue that both patrilateral and matrilateral principles are at work. I discuss the participation of men and women in marriage decision making and suggest a model of symmetric alliance based upon the ideal form of marriage between second degree cross-cousins (real or classificatory and with emphasis on the patrilateral side). The third chapter discusses the basic notions of Airo-Pai cosmo-vision and shamanism, and explores how the dead are thought to see the living according to this cosmo-vision. Section 1 introduces the indigenous conception of 'the other side' and how it is seen to be contacted through shamanism. The rest of the chapter investigates the social meaning of two 'cosmological metaphors' in the light of the indigenous exegesis of their own symbolism. It shows that in the eyes of the spirits of the dead (the 'unripe-people') the living men and women are seen as two different species of birds 'who' reproduce separately. I demonstrate that underlying this symbolism is the idea that fatherhood and motherhood entail symmetrical responsibilities which are conceived in terms of aspects of livelihood, such as pottery for women and fibre-weaving for men. From the same images which underpin the notion of single-sex reproduction the idea of cross-sexual complementarity emerges. This analysis brings a new light to the indigenous understanding of gender, parenting and the importance of the marital tie for the reproduction of Airo-Pai society. Chapter four is concerned with processes of socialization and gender differentiation. In the first part, I examine the indigenous conceptions of 'thought', 'work' and 'possession' which lay the foundations of personhood and social organization. In the 23

second part, I look in detail at the teachings given during the male and female puberty rites; and conclude by an examination of the changes brought by puberty in the lives of men and women. Chapter five focuses on the marital relationship. I examine the wedding ceremony of young people and the 'advice' given to them by their parents. I show how youngsters are trained by their parents to fulfil their obligations towards each other and their affines during the first years of marriage. By discussing the internal dynamics of complementarity and reciprocity of services between spouses, the key role played by children for assuring proper communication between spouses is revealed. Ideas about male and female proscribed behaviour are discussed which denote the importance of personal autonomy for both spouses. The last section, is a critique of the characterization of 'brideservice societies' drawn by Collier and Rosaldo on the basis of the Airo-Pai data presented here. Chapter six provides a detailed analysis of the vegetable food cycle of the Airo-Pai economy. I explore indigenous ideas about the ownership of gardens, cultivated plants and crops in relation to their cosmology. I discuss the social logic underlying the successive stages of agricultural production, the harvest, culinary preparation, circulation of cooked vegetable food and consumption. The patterns of bread offering between the women of the settlement are examined in detail in the last section. Chapter seven is a description of the social organization of the meat cycle of the AiroPai economy. I discuss the sharing of knowledge about the movements of the prey in the forest and river and its symbolic elaboration in shamanism. As in Chapter six, I examine in detail the process from production to consumption of meat, and I stress the fact that meat is circulated twice between the members of the settlement: first raw and then cooked. I then look at cooking techniques and the social ordering of meals. I conclude with an examination of indigenous ideas on the sharing of food as a means of creating trust between community members. c) The Afro-Pal and the 'whites' The majority of anthropological accounts of the Airo-Pai have been carried out among those Airo-Pai who currently live in Ecuador and who are known there as 'Secoya'. In Peru, (where I carried out fieldwork) the Airo-Pai are also called 'Secoya' by the mestizos of the area, but the anthropologists who have studied them have rightly noted that when speaking to a stranger they use the self-denomination of *AiroPajN (Forest-

24

People)8. The term "airo"' refers to the forest as the environement from which the AiroPal derive their livelihood and their knowledge. By contrast the term "hjj4ihjj" ("monster's place") signifies the foreign and dangerous aspects of the forest. In this thesis I have decided to use the indigenous self-denomination of Airo-Pai instead of the label of Secoya for two main reasons. First, because the label of Secoya is arbitrary and brings confusion as to the clan composition of this group. The word Secoya derives from the indigenous term "siecoyc' which means: 'the river (-ya) painted with lines (sieco)'. This river is situated in Peruvian territory and it is the mythical river of origin of one of the Airo-Pai clans (the piVzuaje-paj) (see next chapter). The Airo-Pai are currently called Secoya by the regional mestizos because at the beginning of the century a large group of Airo-Pai, from different clans, were living along this river and working in rubber production. Many of these Afro-Pal then migrated to Ecuador where they are still called Secoya. Unfortunately, the use of this label has led to confusion. For instance, some authors claim that the Secoya River is the mythical river of origin of all the people who are arbitrarily labelled as Secoya (see CICAME 1990a:3). The second reason concerns the opinion of the Airo-Pai themselves. The first words that I was made to repeat again and again at my arrival to their communities was "AiroPaj cocua": "Forest-People language". They explained in Spanish with great humour that 'Secoya' was the name of a river, and that they could not understand why the white people insisted to calling them by the name of a river. "We are paj (people, gente), we are the people of this forest", they said. "Our grand-parents lived here. This is the place that Moon has left behind for us, and nobody should come here without our permission. The whites, you belong to the city, but you can come for a visit if you so wish", I was clearly told. The Airo-Pai sense of humour is very fine indeed and they have formulated their own explanation as to why the whites call them Secoya. They explained that, in fact, the whites want to say "sieco-paj": "people painted with lines", but they cannot pronounce it right. The Airo-Pai would not dislike this new label and they relate it to an event that probably took place at the beginning of this century when a large number of them were living along the Secoya River. The story goes that two white men arrived when they were

8For the studies done in Ecuador see Vickers (1989) and Cipolletti (1988), and for those in Peru, see Casanova (1988), Ortiz Rescanière (1975) and Mercier (1990). 'Literally the word airo reads as 'the extended place' (Johnson and Wheeler 1987). 25

holding a feast. The Airo-pai wore body painting, as is their custom. The whites were astonished to see them so beautifully decorated and asked them who they were. As a joke, they said, the Airo-pai answered that they were 'people painted with lines' (siecopaj) and that the whites were 'people with trousers' (also see Cipolletti 1988:62).

Although the Airo-Pai explained that this was a joke, the idea that white men wear trousers and do not wear body painting is important to them. The Airo-Pai men wear a tunic down to the knee and the women a layered skirt (and a tight blouse in front of strangers). These garments were probably adopted in the last century from the Quichua people; nevertheless, they are extremely proud of them and they consider them as one of the signs of their 'Airo-Painess'. When putting on body painting, they also paint their garments since these are regarded as part of their skin. The Airo-Pai referred to me as "anque-paj' (white-person). Their idea of 'whitepeople' is intimately linked to the city. Thus, the 'proper' white-people, the anquërepa (precisely white) are said to live in 'cities' like Iquitos, Lima, 'the United-States' and

'Europe'. The term anque is also the name that the white-lipped peccary have in the other-world. It is also the name of a powerful other-worldly being 'who' is said to inhabit the bottom end of the inside of the earth. His full name is nw.sehuë anquë (red hairy white). The association between the white people and these other-worldly beings is based, it was explained, on their common 'grumbling' and 'hairy' features. White people do not pull out their facial hair and they shout and give orders with hard voices. In addition, the whites have horrendous grumbling machines, like the cannons used during the war between Peru and Ecuador in 1941, of which the older Airo-pai have a clear memory. By contrast, they said, the well-behaved Airo-Pai speak softly and pull out all facial hair because shouting and untidy hair would attract the 'monsters' (huati) that would cause them to lose control, to murder and to die. As we see, the Airo-Pai label for us as city people highlights our failings. d) Methods of fieldwork

I arrived in Iquitos in September 1989 and was introduced to a group of Italian cooperants of a non-governmental organization (PRODOCS) who were working in a healthcare project along the Alto-Napo basin. Through them I met the Canadian missionaries who are settled in Santa Clotilde and Angoteros in the Napo River and who have indirect control over most of the navigation in the region. I travelled throughout the NapoPutumayo region during two months visiting the Airo-Pai communities. It was finally 26

agreed that I should remain in the community of Vencedor-Huajoya of the Santa-Maria

River. Travelling to the Santa-Maria River from Iquitos was a major enterprise (eight days by motor boat plus one day in canoe). The community of Huajoya

is

also fairly

isolated (two days by canoe) from the frontier with Ecuador where military and mestizos live. The Ouichua school teacher, his wife and children and I were the only strangers in the community, not surprising given its isolation. During my stay in Huajoya

I lived

in three different houses, which allowed me to

observe from first hand the differences in household organization. I spent day and night with them, and shared the intimacy of their meals, working, journeys, feasts, women's baths, and long conversations in the mornings before dawn. It was agreed that I should provide gifts for all the members of the community (cloth, ammunition, hooks, and beauty accessories for the women) and that I should give some more to the people who were lodging me. Apart from these gifts (which I handed over to the community headman so that he could distribute them) I was not expected to do anything. I soon realized that the Airo-Pai considered me as a rather useless woman (unable to carry heavy weights, bake bread, paddle a canoe, and behave properly when menstruating, for instance). However, they took my many mistakes with sense of humour and made me feel 'at home'. They fed me with great generosity, treated me with affection and always kept a protective eye on me. I explained that I wished to learn their language and customs. Most adults were spontaneously co-operative and offered to tell a myth or to sing for my tape recorder. I gave special gifts to those who spent long hours translating and explaining the tapes. They were generous with their knowledge but refused to have pictures taken of them because, they explained, they feared I would sell them and make money. I was allowed to use my camera only toward the end of my fieldwork. I made notes on household composition, genealogical data, gardening and cooking, and on everything that might have a bearing on community organization. I recorded a total of 157 myths, 26 shamanic chants and 24 women's songs. Concerning the shamanic material, it should be noted that in this thesis I will not concentrate on the examination of the shamanic practice as such but on the cosmo-vision which underlies this practice. Two to three years before my arrival they had stopped the communal taking of hallucinogenic substances under the influence of the Evangelical preaching. I was therefore unable to take part in a communal ballucinogens-drinking

sessions (

although I

witnessed several curing sessions by shamans without the use of hallucinogens). The shamans performed shamanic chants for my tape recorder, and then translated them into 27

Spanish interpreting them spontaneously. Although this was an 'artificial' situation, it had the advantage that the shamans could sing without the fear of upsetting the spirits because without the hallucinogens, they explained, the spirits could not 'really' listen to them. These recording and translating sessions were held in the presence of all those who were interested. This convinced me that a great part of shamanic knowledge is not esoteric and that women are familiar with the shamanic experience as undergone by their husbands. The Afro-Pal usage of the Spanish language was instrumental for the collection and translation of oral information. Unfortunately, to date the Afro-Pal language has not been the focus of a serious study and there are no grammars or dictionaries published. I used the draft material of Johnson & Wheelers (1987) and the school leaflet of the Summer Institute of Linguistics in Ecuador. The conditions of close interaction with my infonnants allowed me to progress in my understanding of the daily usages of Afro-Pai language, but I would have been unable to understand their more formal usages (for instance in myth telling and chanting) without the translation and explanations of my informants. These sessions of translation proved to be extremely informative, since the Airo-Pai would both translate and interpret the material spontaneously. I am myself a native Peruvian Spanish speaker but I had to learn the specific dialect of Spanish spoken by the Afro-Pal. Their use of Spanish struck me as being clearly distinctive from my own usage of it, and this enabled me to reflect on the concepts that they were trying to convey through their dialect of Spanish. I left the field in October 1989 having acquired an overview of the Airo-Pai of Peru, and a close acquaintance with the community of Huajoya. I spent the two following months in Lima investigating written records in the libraries and the archives of state offices.

28

CHAFFER 1: HISTORY AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATION In this chapter I will describe the basic features of Afro-Pal social organization and present a short history covering the period for which historical records are available. It will be shown that the Airo-Pai of today are constituted of different fragments of what once was a vast Western-Tukanoan complex. SECTION 1: SOCIAL ORGANIZATION a) Present day patterns of residence The Airo-Pai of Peru live in settlements scattered along the Santa-Maria River tributary to the Nape River - and along the Yubineto, the Angusiya and the Taricaya rivers - all of which are tributaries to the Putumayo River (see map. 1 and 2). The total Afro-Pal population in Peru is approximately 350 individuals. During the time of fieldwork, there were seven settlements that had between

30

to 100 inhabitants (see

appendix 1). Their current neighbours are the Ouichua along the Nape and some parts of the Putumayo and the Huitoto, Colombian and Peruvian mestizos along the Putumayo. In Spanish the Airo-Pai call their settlement wpueblou (village); the indigenous term for it is daripë. Settlements are built on a hill by the river shore and comprise several elevated individual houses surrounding a school (if there is one) with an open grass field used to play football. The houses are wooden framed and thatched with palm leaves. They are separated from one another by a few metres, and sometimes wooden bridges connect one or two houses together. This style of individual elevated houses was adopted in the last thirty years from the neighbouring Ouichua people. In the past, the Afro-Pal

lived in rectangular long-houses that gathered together up to eight married couples and their children (approximately). The older Afro-Pal settlements comprised a single longhouse and a patio where dances and other rituals took place. The settlement was built next to a small spring. Traditionally, residence was patrilocal for men and virilocal for women. However, the choice of post-marital residence was not automatic as my informants explained that 'if the woman was stronger', then post-marital residence would be uxorilocal. In the case of virilocal residence, the couple was expected to pay long and frequent visits to the wife's relatives. The explicit reasons given as to why residence should be virilocal are: 29

(Map 1) Indigenous p.oplss of North-West inasonia

13 B IA

C 0 L 0

iI

ECUADOR

14 14

,' .P E

14 1 Airo-Pai 2 Huitoto 3 Andoke 4 Mirana 5 Ocaina 6 Muinani 13 Mai Huna

9 7 Bora 8 Carijona 9 Tukuna 10 Yagua 11 Quichua 12 Siona

5/

_____ *00 km1

14 Area of the Eastern-Tukanoan language family (Desana, Barasana, Tatuyo, Cubeo) 15 Area of the Jivaroan language family (Aguaruana, Achuar, Shuar, Huambisa)

(Map. 2) Airo-Psi communities in Peru

1) 2) 3) 7)

Vencedor-Huaj oya Santa Rita Machonta Jerusalem

4) Isango 5) Nuevo San Martin 6) Beliavista 30

1) a young man who is learning the shamanic practice from his father should not remain away from him for long lest he will lack his father's spiritual protection, 2) a woman should not be responsible for the well-being of her parents in old age because she has enough work with her own children. Therefore, old parents should be taken care of by their sons and in a minor exten t by their children-in-law. Currently, a settlement is comprised of patrilateral and matrilateral relatives in the first and second degrees and people who have affinal ties with one another. There are cases of uxorilocality, virilocality and ambiocality. Generally, marriage is exogamous to the settlement but parents often follow their children to their new site of residence. Most settlements - an exception being the settlement of Bellavista - are moved to a new location every five to ten years'. In addition new settlements are constantly being created and older ones dismantled; inter-settlement mobility is high both because of short-term visiting and long-term residential changes (also see Vickers 1989:250). Each settlement has a headman called paj jae ("the master of the people"). Traditionally, the headman was also a shaman of renown in which case he was called Intl paique ("the one who lives"). Although the headman plays a crucial political role by gathering the villagers around him, he has little power of coercion over his followers. As it will be shown in this thesis, the organization of daily life in the settlement is not centralized and each individual is relatively independent to develop his or her own field of social interaction. In Spanish, the Airo-Pai refer to the headman as ci capitán ("the captain') or as ci jefe de Ia comunidad ("the community's chief"). Currently there is a tendency towards the separation between chief manship and shamanism. To a certain extent this is due to the adherence by the Airo-Pai to a political programme launched by the Peruvian government in the 1970's based on the concept of the comunidad nativa. In this scheme, the settlement (and a given extension of land surrounding it) constitutes a 'native community'. The community's chief acts as the representative to state institutions, the church, and other regional, national and international organizations that operate in the area (see next section). As a consequence, he has to travel away from his community frequently.

'The settlement of Bellavista on the Yubin was created 15 years ago and it has the highest population of all (see Casanova 188th). 31

b Earlier patterns of social organization It is difficult to know with precision the earlier patterns of Afro-Pal social organization given the dramatic demographic drop and population movements that occurred during the last century as a result of the exploitation of rubber, skins and timber. I will look at this period of Afro-Pal history in the next section. For now, I will attempt to reconstruct the basic features of their past social organization. The analysis of written records and first hand information collected during fieldwork strongly suggests that the Afro-Pal of today are a mixture of different Western-Tukanoan speaking peoples who used to live side-by-side but separate in the area between the Napo and the Caquetá rivers. Following Bellier (1990)1 suggest using the term 'clan' for these groups. The analysis of the data indicates that each of these clans was localized in a particular territory around a river which was considered to be its site of origin. Each clan spoke a western-Tukanoan dialect and each was known by an eponyme-based name (see below). Clan membership was patrilateral and marriage could be either endogamous or exogamous to the clan, although each clan had several strictly exogamous residential units (settlements). The typical single-house settlement was moved every five to ten years or at the death of a powerful shaman. The dead were buried under the house and the site was abandoned. Residence was patrilocal for men and virilocal for women (Vickers 1989: 179). In the next chapter, I will look in detail at the organization of marriage and show that while clan membership is not an important factor for marriageability today, residential exogamy is crucial. I suggest that this was also the case in the past. My informants explained that people prefered to marry someone from the same clan because they felt they could more fully understand and trust each other (especially regarding the fear of sorcery attacks), and in this way their clan could wincreaseu. But marriage outside the clan was also correct as long as residential exogamy was respected. The term 'clan', however, is problematic because it is unclear how these WesternTukanoan speaking clans were articulated between themselves. Therefore, it is unclear whether we can speak of a 'clan organization' of Western-Tukanoan peoples. As I have explained, the data indicates that these clans could be endogamous and quite independent from each other. In addition, some clans were localized in territories very far apart and rarely related to one another. In support of the term 'clan' it should be said that the AfroPal do have a unifying - although rather vague - idea of these clans as a whole. They say that they are all "paL TM (people) and that they are at once similar and different from each other. The chief criteria for their identity is the mutual understandability of their 32

languages. The mythology attributes a common origin to all the Western-Tukanoan peoples and does not make any clan differentiation. It should be pointed out that Airo-Pai mythology is significantly different from that of Eastern-Tukanoan peoples. No mention is made of anaconda ancestors and the first humans are said to have emerged from a hole in the earth (see Cipolletti 1988:64). The person Moon (Na/k!) greeted them on the surface and pulled out their tails. From the tail of the older Western-Tukanoan originated the woolly monkey (lagorftc lagotro), from the Huitoto was born the callicebus black monkey, the from the Aucas was born the howler monkey (alouatta seniculus) and the from the white people was born the capuchin monkey (cebus albtfrons). Finally, these clans play an important role in the indigenous idea of the after-life, but the present day Airo-Pai do not seem to emphasize this point. ci The Airo-Pai today

Many of the Western-Tukanoan clans which were localized in the past are now extinct while others have survived, but most of them have merged and formed new 'mixed' settlements. The current 'mixed' populations of Western-Tukanoans are: the Airo-Pai of Peru and Ecuador (also known as Secoya), the Siona of Ecuador and Colombia, the Mal Huna of Peru (also known as Coto or Orejon), and the Coreguaje, Macaguaje, Tama and Carijona2 of Colombia and Ecuador. The total western-Tukanoan population is estimated as 2,500

individuals (CICAME 1990a:6).

Among the Airo-Pai of Peru there are individuals belonging to the following clans (ordered in decreasing number of people): Clans found among the Airo-Pai of Peru:

1) The Uncwere-Jx4 (ant-people) origin river: the Cgpeya (Campuya river) 2) The PiVzuaje-paj (small-bird-'living'-people) origin river: the siecoya (Secoya river) 3) The Macahuaje-paj (submerging under water -'living'-people) origin river: the curiya (Curiya river) 4) The A/lahuaje-paj (snake-'living'-people) origin river: the cgjëya (Putumayo river).

2The Tama and Corijona were originally Carib speaking people who integrated into the Western-Tukanoan populations. 33

The term huaje which can be glossed as 'living' (Wheeler: 1970:116, Langdon: 1974:108, Vickers 1989:190) is central to the Airo-Pai conception of liferenewal among the living and the dead. A Typical explanation of its meaning is: "it is like when after flying over a long distance a bird stands on a branch breathing deeply, resting". Other indigenous translations of this term are: "renewed", "resurrected" and "saved". I was given no explanation as to why some clan names ended by "huaje" and others did not3. At present, clan membership does not seem to be an important issue among coresidents and people stress that they are all equally Afro-Pal (Forest-People). However, they are aware of their dialectal differences. This is particularly so among older people. The young people of one settlement tend to speak in a uniform way using the dialect of the clan that is most represented in the settlement. In Peru, the uncutere-pai are the most numerous, and for this reason young people tend to speak the wzcutere-paj dialect and indeed many of them come to consider themselves as uncutere-paj regardless of their own parents' clan. Most adults know their parents's clan but many are uncertain about their own clan membership. Those whose parents belonged to different clans say that they are a "mixture" of both. For instance a man explained that his MM and MF were both incahuajJ-paj, his FF was an wicutere-paj and his FM was an pihuaj-pai. He

considered himself to be a "mixture" of the three clans, and he added that he had kin belonging to these three different clans in Peru, Ecuador and Colombia whom he could join if he so decided. Nevertheless, he explained that be owes his knowledge - both practical and shamanic - to his father, who himself learnt it from his uncutere-paj paternal grand-father. Consequently he regarded himself principally as an uncutere-paj (also see CICAME 1990b: 11). It becomes clear that clan membership is not based on one single principle, but rather upon a combination of several principles: patrilateral ties, cognatic links, residence and language. There is choice in the matter. I would therefore disagree with Vickers (1988:188-91) and Bellier (1990:86) who argue that Western-Tukanoan clan membership is patrilineal. Rather, I would suggest that patrilateral ties are particularly important. To

3My informants did not give a full translation for the name 'wzcuere'. They explained that uncu was a sort of tree ant (unidentified) which bites strongly. These ants also play an important role in shamanism. 34

speak of a 'lineal' principle, however, would be an overstatement. Vickers pushes his argument further by stating that Airo-Pai society is founded on a system of patrilineages. I contest this argument because the Airo-Pai do not draw genealogies and do not elaborate upon the idea of descent from a common ancestor. Langdon, who does not fully reject the idea of patrilineages, nevertheless points out that these are not an organizing principle of Western-Tukanoan (Siona) society (1982:357). Patrilateral ties are indeed stressed between u mediate kin. For instance, patrilateral relatives call each other by the reciprocal term huau which they translate in Spanish as "younger sibling" (see next chapter). But this term is also used to greet a friendly stranger and it denotes friendly intentions rather than 'lineage' membership. In the next chapter, I will show that Airo-Pai marriage cannot be thought of as the union of two intermarrying "lines", and that both patrilateral and matrilateral principles are at work in kinship and marriage. d)Names Little is known about the Airo-Pai naming system. As Vickers (1988:233) remarks, personal names are said to be given by the spirits of the dead, the "unripe-people" (jenapaj) (see Chapter 3) and it is thought that the "soul" (joyo) (see Chapter 4) of a dead

person joins the group of unripe-people who gave him or her their name. Normally the naming ceremony is performed by the paternal grand-father of the child. Nevertheless, the transmission of name is not based on a patrilineal logic but on the tie between alternate-generations. I had the oportunity to observe that in the absence of the paternal grand-father the naming ceremony is performed by the maternal grand-father and not by the father of the child. A boy is given the name of a dead brother of his grand-father, and a girl is given the name of a dead sister of lEr grand-father. The link between clans and names is obscure. It is unclear whether each clan possessed its own names or whether the same names were shared by different clans. SECTION 2: BRIEF HISTORY OF ThE AIRO-PAI a) From the 16th century to 1880 An examination of historical records indicates that the ancestors of the Airo-Pai have being living in the same region for at least five hundred years. Linguistic investigation confirms that the Airo-Pai speak the same language spoken by the "Encabellado" people whom the Spaniards encountered in the 16th century. The label Encabellado came from 35

the Indian custom of wearing long hair wrapped in a bun (Chantre y Herrera 1901:63; Lathrap 1972:17-18; Grohs 1974: 22-23). They were first missionized by the Franciscans until 1683, and then by the Jesuits until their expulsion in 1766. According to Espinoza Perez (1955:19-33) at least fifteen missionary centres, 'reducciones', were created between 1730 and 1752, but the reducciones were never stable. They were repeatedly abandoned by the Indians who disliked the idea of living side by side with people alien to their own residential group. Chroniclers report that the Airo-Pai were amenable and hard-working, but also known for their ferocity in warfare against neighbours and European invaders. The chroniclers specify that their main pleasures were to ornament their bodies and to sing to their gods (Maroni 1889-92(27):78). With the expulsion of the Jesuits (1766), missionary activities declined leaving a lot of damages and disruption. The Airo-Pai population suffered a dramatic demographic drop when ravaged by epidemics of European origin (Simson 1986:197), and many abandoned their original land and sought refuge in hidden areas. During the 19th century, they maintained relatively little contact with white people. But by the end of the last century, the rapid increase in the international demand for natural rubber brought a second wave of destruction to the region, and led to its progressive integration into the national societies of the new republics of Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia. b) From 1880 to 1940

Rubber production in the Napo and Putumayo basins took similar form to that encountered in other Amazonian areas. In the literature, the system is known as 'habiitación' ("to render able")(see Pineda Camacho 1987). There are few records concerning the development of habiitación among the Airo-Pai (Langdon 1974:37). According to my informants, their relationship with the patrones ("bosses") did not reach the outrageous level of cruelty reported for the Casa Arana, which operated among their Mai Huna and Huitoto neighbours in the Putumayo (Hardenburg 1912). By the turn of this century, the Airo-Pai worked for two big patrones. One of them, a Spaniard named Paco Carmoña, was based along the shores of the Napo River, around the mouth of the Aguarico River. The other was settled on the shores of the Putumayo, around the mouth of the Canapuya River. Casanova (1980a:81) reports that the latter patrdn forced them to work resorting to physical punishment. The Airo-Pai killed him and fled to the Yubineto River. Some years later, their kin from the Nape basin convinced them to move to the Siecoya River, and to work with the Spaniard Carmofla. It is during this period that the

36

mestizos label the Afro-Pal 'Secoya'. As I have argued in the introduction, this is an arbitrary and confusing label, and I have suggested to use in its place the indigenous selfdenomination of "Airo-paL" (Forest-People). According to my informants, the patrón Paco Carmofia was "good". He did not force them to work through physical punishment and gave them a fair deal for their rubber (CICAME 1990a, Vickers 1989:69). They had great desire for the Western goods traded by their patron, and therefore engaged in the habilitaciOn upon their free will in order to obtain the goods4. Around 1920 the 'rubber boom' declined, but the patrones remained. Their next aim was to obtain timber and animal-skins. Carniofia died in 1929, leaving his step-son Mauricio Levi as his successor. The latter is said to have been a cruel man. He established a few cattle ranches along the Napo, and attempted to forced the Airo-Pai to settle on them but they refused to abandon the forest interior. From this time onwards and until recent years, several small patrones have competed for the monopoly over indigenous work, precipitating the movements of populations and the further demographic fall of the Afro-Pal5. c) From 1941 to date

In 1941, the national boundaries between Peru and Ecuador were drawn in a climate of hostility which endures to the present day. The Airo-Pai were divided into Ecuadorians and Peruvians, a division that left them unable to visit each other freely. The lives of these two groups became distant as they became progressively integrated into their respective national societies (Vickers 1989:71-75). 1)The Peruvian Napo basin

Since the 1970's, the Catholic mission has regained strength in the Peruvian Alto Napo basin. The Canadian priest Jean-Marc Mercier settled among the Napean Quichua, and

4The most desired goods were: steal axes, knives, machetes, fire guns, ammunition, fish hooks, salt, mirrors, cloth and thread. 5Around 1970, a Belgian entrepreneur established a touristic camp in the huacayacu lake of the Santa-Maria River and used the neighbouring Airo-pai as the exotic human attraction for Americans and Europeans. According to my informants, the "gringos" were "human-eaters" (come gente). They accused them of cannibalism to the Peruvian military, who consequently came to their defense, causing the collapse of the camp. 37

launched the formation of the Ouichua federation ORKIWAN6, to which the Airo-Pai of the Santa Maria river were partially annexed. This indigenous federation has played a major role in the recent history of the upper Napo basin. At present, there are no more patrones in the Nape but the boat-traders regatones have replaced them to a certain extent. The regaton (from regatear: to haggle) is a small commercial intermediary between the local people and the city markets. He brings Western goods in his boat and exchanges them directly for indigenous products (chickens, manioc-fiour (farina), salted wild meat, rice, etc) which he transports to and sells in the cities, like Iquitos. He makes a considerable profit from the difference between his selling and buying prices. The trade with the regatones is very important to the Airo-Pai because many Western goods are now essential to their daily life (ammunition, fish hooks, kerosene, salt, matches, knives, axes, aluminium crockery, clothes, thread, and medicines). However, trading does not significantly interfere in their daily life because most of the production of vegetables and wild meat is for internal consumption. Chickens and eggs are the main items to be specifically produced for trading7. Hammocks and peccary's skins are also regularly exchanged for Western goods, and occasionally, people sell their corn, but only when they consider they have enough for themselves8. Upon the promulgation of the "LaW of the Native Communities" ('Ley de las Comunidades Nativas' ,CIPA 1978), the indigenous people of the Peruvian Amazon have been attributed legal property rights over their communal land. Five Afro-pal communities were officially recognized (see Casanova 1988a). In recent years, the ORKIWAN federation has implemented several programmes of communal action " under the guidance of the priest Mercier and a small team of Catholic Teresianas. Their aim is to enhance ethnic identity and to empower indigenous people in the national society through bilingual education, primary health education, communal shops and boats, and 'Organizacidn Kichua Runa Wanga Runa Organization Quichua People all United. 7The Airo-Pai have learnt to raise chicken from the Quichua. They have repeatedly tried to raise pigs and cows, but they are poor animal breeders. Chicken and eggs are eaten only on those rare occasions when they decide to "live like Ouichua people do", as they put it, that is for the celebration of Peru's national day and Christmas and Easter. 8The Airo-Pai prefer to exchange their products rather than to sell them for money. Given the current economic crisis in Peru, money is an even more unreliable currency in this isolated part of the country. In the community of huajoya people possessed few Western goods. No one had a radio and only some had a battery torch. In the communities of the Putumayo basin Western goods are more widely possessed. 38

instruction in mechanics. The federation's activities are partially self-financed. The rest of the costs are covered by international Catholic funds and by non-governmental organizations (the Italian PRODOCS9). The ORKIWAN has acquired considerable political strength in the region, much to the dismay of the few whites who live in the Frontier post with Ecuador. In the local elections of 1989, a Quichua teacher was elected Major of the District. Never before had indigenous people had access to political responsibilities in the Napo region. 2)The Peruvian Putumayo basin In recent years the Peruvian Putumayo basin has been strongly influenced by the production of coca on the Colombian side and by the Evangelical missions launched from Ecuador by the Summer Institute of Linguistics. In 1955 Orville Johnson, a linguist from the Summer Institute of Linguistics, settled among the Airo-Pai of Ecuador. In 1973, he sent an indigenous delegation to the Peruvian Afro-Pal inviting them to come and settle in Ecuador. Approximately 60 AfroPal left'°. Those who remained were frequently visited by Evangelical missionaries from Puerto Asis in Colombia (Ia Iglesia Cuadrangular) and Ecuador (SIL). The missionaries attempted to ban the indigenous consumption of hallucinogenic and fermented drinks. However, conversion was slow in coming and ironically, it was the spread of coca plantations and the cruelty of the coca patrones which precipitated the indigenous acceptance of Evangelism. An indigenous Evangelical leader explained that the young people were becoming trouble-makers and "fumones" (smokers of coca-basic-paste) like the "cocorocos". Evangelism, he said, had "washed-up" their bodies-and-soul, and made them "pure-clean" again. c) Recent history of the community of Vencedor-Huajova Two years before my arrival, the community of Huajoyd' on the Santa-Marfa River of the Nape basin was struck by an epidemic of yellow fever, causing the death of six

9PRODOCS: Progetto Domani Cultura e Società. '°In 1989, a group of seven families returned to Peruvian territory and settled along the Taricaya river of the Putumayo bassin. ' 1Huajoya means 'warrior (huajo) river (-ya)'. This name is said to come from the

violent episodes which took place there between Afro-Pal and Portuguese soldiers around 1637 (see Espinosa Perez 1955: 15,17). 39

(Map 3) Th. community of V.nc.dor-Huajoya

';

(Map 4) Plan of th. community of Vencedor-Huajoya. Shaded area: under cultivation

* • -

:

? -

40

peoples (10% of the inhabitants). The headman's older brother (who was a shaman of renown) a.lso died in the epidemics. The dead were buried under the headman's house, and the people decided to abandon the site and settle in a new location. The elder son of the headman's dead brother suggested a move further down-river. Arguing for greater integration with the ORKIWAN schooling system, he wanted to establish the settlement closer to the Santa Maria's mouth on the Napo River so that a Ouichua teacher could join them more easily. The majority agreed and he took the lead of the community. However, his paternal uncle refused to follow him and built a house for himself and his widowed sister in-law (the new headman's mother) closer to the older settlement. The others finally moved mid-way down river. Discontented, some inhabitants left for the Putumayo basin, but two new families arrived from the Putumayo and settled in the new site. They brought three young men and one young woman who all married into the community. Currently, there is a tendency to become stationary. The Airo-Pai say that the community of Huajoya should become a proper Peruvian pueblo (village) and that it should have buildings in cement for the school and the medical centre and a stable cemetery outside the village. In many respects, they look at the Ouichua people as a model of "Peruvianness" and they have already adopted several elements of material culture from them such as individual elevated houses and manioc beer. The presence of a Ouichua teacher in the community may accelerate this process of "Quichuazation" in the future. However, the relationship with the Ouichua is not unproblematic. Most AiroPal have harmonious relationships with the Ouichua and many have compadres among them, but the Ouichua hold them to be dangerous sorcerers. The Airo-Pai themselves feel fundamentally alien to the Ouichua, especially concerning food preparation and behaviour towards pregnant and menstruating women (see Chapter 3). Inter-ethnic marriages are unusual. Although the nearest Airo-Pai settlement is four days walk away (there is no direct fluvial connection), the people from Huajoya visit their kin in the Putumayo basin frequently, and vice-versa. In the Putumayo, they engage in temporary work in coca fields and in this way they can acquire Western goods (cooking pans, knives, material, etc) that are currently very expensive in Peru. Evangelism has recently received acceptance in Huajoya as well. In the last 2 or 3 years before my arrival, they stopped their customary practice of taking hallucinogens communally because the state of drunkenness induced by the drugs was a 'sin' (pecado), according to the Evangelists. Many people still drink fermented beers (manioc beer) but only the older headman and 41

his widowed sister in-law still take hallucinogenic substances, a practice they perform on their own. Bible-reading meetings and hymn-singing sessions are organized now and then by the enthusiastic teenagers who find in these occasions a great deal of enjoyment. The older people are more reserved in their prayers and they often request from the Christian god the same things that they would have requested from the 'unripe-people'. Parents pray for the growth of their children. They request from Jesus-Christo and from Jehová strength to work and produce food, and symbolic "clean-cold water baths" to cure them from illness and laziness. However, as will be shown, the indigenous cosmo-vision and shamanic thought are still alive and many claim that they should not be abandoned. An Airo-Pai explained: "Now we do not converse with the people who live in the sky (the unripe-people) any more. So how could they know what we need? When we spoke with them they gave us all we required. But now the rains are not good and the people are lazy. We do not know how to think any more. Our hearts have been changed". The same person, however, explained that Evangelism was a good thing because in the past the shamans were dangerous sorcerers, and the Airo-Pai say that the sorcery of their own shamans has been the cause of the quasi-disappearance of their people (CICAME 1990a:37).

42

CHAPTER 2: KINSHIP AND MARRIAGE RECKONING This chapter explores how the Airo-Pai relationship nomenclature is related to the reckoning of marriage. In an examination of Airo-Pai marriage we must take into account how the Afro-Pal use their system. I will argue that Airo-Pai marriage cannot be understood as the link between two intermarrying Nlinesu because both patrilateral and matrilateral principles are at work, and both men and women are important in marriage reckoning and negotiation. Following the recent discussion on the meaning and forms of the Dravidian-type in Amazonia by Viveiros de Castro (1991), I will suggest that the Airo-Pai relationship terminology is better understood as a variation on the basic Dravidian-type (Dumont 1953). Important differences with this basic model are: 1) the existence of specific terms for effective affines, 2) the absence of an explicit demarcation between marriageable and non-marriageable categories and 3) the presence of oblique equations (similar to certain Omaha-type aspects but lacking unilinear ideology1). The Airo-Pai assert that ego should marry outside his or her settlement and "far"(so 'o). However the point which they really stress is that marriage should be arranged in 'conversations'. Marriage conversations require at least three separate same-sex 'conversation pairs'. One pair is male and constituted by the bride's father and the groom's father. The two other pairs are female. One is formed by the bride's mother and the groom's mother, and the other of the bride's MM and the groom's FM. As I will show, each 'conversation pair' establishes correct marriage for G(0) in an equivalent manner. Inter-female reckoning entails an avuncular variation, whereas inter-male reckoning specifies a variation of alternate generations marriage. The complete picture is marriage with a second degree cross-cousin, with emphasis on the patrilateral side. In section 1, I give a brief description of the relationship terminology and indigenous conceptions of kinship. Section 2 examines the constitution of marriage 'conversation

1Vickers (1989:191) argues that Airo-Pai terminology is Omaha and marriage is organized by exogamous patrilineages. He says that one should marry outside one's own lineage and mother's lineage, although one may marry a far relative of mother. As I have shown that notion of 'lineage' does not apply because the Airo-Pai do not elaborate upon descent from a common ancestor. In addition, Vicker's suggestion does not account for the indigenous practice of marriage conversations. For a discussion of Omaha-type terminologies see Héritier F. (1981), and Viveiros de Castro (1990) for a critical aipraisal of Héritier's book (1981) l'eercice de la parenté. 43

pairs'. I suggest a model of symmetrical alliance and residential exogamy for the Airo-Pai in section 3. I then move in section 4 to the examination of the social logic underlying the circulation of brides and the question of marriage decision making. I conclude in section 5 with a suggestion concerning the philosophy of far marriage among the AiroPai. SECTION I: AIRO-PAI KINSHIP a) The relationship nomenclature 1)Charter of terms of address and reference Descriptive terms: - pt!quejaco: M (reference) - jaco: M (address) - pequtjaque: F (reference) -jaque: F (address) - ma,nco: D (reference) - sihuao: D (address) - mamquE: S (reference) - sihuae: S (address) Categorical terms (address and reference): Male and female speaker: - fico: MM, FM, MMZ, FMZ, FMZ, FFZ,and the women who ego's parents call pequeyojeo - flque: MF, FF, MMB, MFB, FMB, FFB, and the men who ego's parents call cu Male and female speaker -peco: FZ, FFBD, FMZD, MBW - cuf: MB, MMZS, MFBS, and the sons of the men ego calls cue like: MBS, MBSS, MMZSS, MMZSSS, MFBSS, MFBSSS Male and female speaker: - pequeyojeo: MZ, MMZD, MFBD, and the daughters of the men ego calls C like: MBD, MBSD, MBSSD, MMZSD, MMZSSD, MFBSD, MFBSSD - pequeyojei: FB, FFBS, FMZS Male and female speaker: - ayo: older: Z, MZD, FBD - aye: older: B, MZS, FBS 44

- yojeo: younger: Z, MZD, FBD, and the daughters of the women ego calls pequeyojeo - yojel: younger: B, MZS, FBS, and the sons of the women ego calls p&juëyojeo. - huau: 1) younger: B, MZS, FBS, and the sons of the women ego calls pequt!yojeo.

2) term of address used between close patrilateral kin 3) term of address used to greet a friendly Western-Tukanoan speaking stranger. Female speaker: - mamao: ZD, MZDD, FBDD, FZD, FFBDD, FMZDD - ma,naë: ZS, MZDS, FBDS, FZS, FFBDS, FMZDS Male speaker: - mamao: BD, MZSD, FBSD - maniai: BS, MZSS, FBSS Female speaker: -jiitao: BD, MZSD, FBSD -jwae: BS, MZSS, FBSS Male speaker: -jutao: ZD, MZDD, FBDD, FZD, FFZD, FMZDD, FFBDD, FFMZDD, FFFBDD - Jwae: ZS, MZDS, FBDS, FZS, FFZS, FMZDS, FFBDS, FFMZDS, FFFBDS Female speaker: - najeo: DD, SD, ZDD, ZSD, BDD, BSD, FZDD, FZSD, and all second generation females other than the daughter of pequeyojeo and cue. Male speaker: - najeo: DD, SD, ZDD, ZSD, BDD, BSD, and all second generation females other than the daughter of pëqueyojeo and cuf. Female speaker: - najei: DS, SS, ZDS, ZSS, BDS, BSS, FZDS, FZSS, and all second generation males other than daughter of pëq)jeo and cuf. Male speaker: - najei: DS, SS, ZDS, ZSS, BDS, BSS, and all second generation males other than the son of peqI2Jeo and cue. Terms for effective affines (address and reference): - huao: 1) sister-in-law (female speaker) 2) mother-in-law (male and female speaker) 3) daughter-in-law (male and female speaker). - huaë: l)brother-in-law (male speaker) 2) father-in-law (male and female speaker) 3) son-in-law (male and female speaker). - huejao: sister-in-law (male speaker). - hutjae: brother-in-law (female speaker).

45

Terms for spouses - paco: wife (address). - n/ao: wife (reference). - nomio: wife ("woman", reference). - paque: husband (address). - atsa!: husband ("listen!" address). - aj: husband (reference). - ëmë: husband ("man", reference).

2) Cognatic kinship An examination of Airo-Pai relationship terminology reveals the cognatic constitution of kinship in the following equations MM=FM

MF=FF

Z=FBD=MZD B=FBS =MZS MD=FD

MS=FS

3) Oblique equations The relationship nomenclature presents the following skewing of generations 1) For male and female speaker: - the term cu applies to MB=MBS=MBSS 2) For male speaker: -the term jijtao applies to ZD=FZD=FFZD -the term jyjaë applies to ZS =FZS =FFZS 3) For male and female speaker: -The term pequeyojeo applies to MZ =MBD =MBSD 4) For female speaker: -the term niwnao applies to ZD=FZD=FFZD -the term mama! applies to ZS=FZS=FFZS It is important to underline the following 'parental' ties between categories for male and female speaker: a) My cu is the father of my pt!quëyojeo and of my cu b) My pequeyojeo is the mother of my classificatory younger 'sibling' (yojeo/ez).

46

4) Adding information to kinship terms Normally, the Airo-Pai specify the kinship distance between two persons by referring to the ties existing between the 'biological' parents of both. It should be pointed out that the terms for mother, father, daughter and son, are strictly descriptive whereas the terms for older and younger siblings indicate wider relational concepts. 'Biological' siblings are said to be the "offspring" (sf)2 of "one belly" (teo ëtap) and/or "one man" (tee ëm). Classificatory siblings are said to be of "another woman" (yeque nomio) or "another man" (yeque enz). Although both matrilateral and patrilateral ties are important, the siblings

born from one women consider themselves to be particularly close to one another. The use of the English term 'sibling' is comparable to Airo-Pai usage in Spanish. I attribute the term of 'sibling' (hermana/o) to the children of: father, mother, pequeyojei and pëqueyojeo3. Unfortunately, the term of 'sibling' does not fully convey the Airo-Pai conceptions. Since the terms for older (ayo/l) and younger (yojeole,) 'sibling' are grammatically different, there are good reasons to believe that these are two different concepts4. Airo-Pai terms express culturally specific social relationships and the 'biological' which has relevance in the relationship nomenclature is that of 'engenderer'/'engendered'. For instance, an Airo-Pai knows who are his or her 'siblings' by referring to G(+ 1): they are the "offspring" of one's father and/or mother and of the same-sex 'siblings' of father and of mother. As I will show, same-sex is a crucial principle of Airo-Pai thought and social organization. In the following analysis, I will adhere to the indigenous way of adding information to kinship terms in order to specify the kinship distance between the persons involved.

For instance, a person falling into the category of cu is recognized as being either MB, MBS, or MBSS. In addition the Airo-Pai indicate (only when the listener does not know it) whether that person is the 'biological' MB, MBS, or MBSS. Below I will show that this a very important point because the place of the category of cu in marriage reckoning

2The term "sj" ("offspring") is different from the term for child of the relationship nomenclature. It is used for people, animals, plants, and other beings of the Airo-Pai cosmology. 3Airo-Pai gloss these two latter term as 'like father' and 'like mother' and explain that these are like one's parents because they are the parents of one's 'siblings'. Literally the terms read as pequë: engenderer, yojeo/ei: younger sister/brother. 4See for instance, Rivière (1969) description of Trio conventional attitudes between 'siblings' according to age and sex. 47

differs depending upon these specifications. In this chapter, I will give the clarification in brackets as shown in the following example: cu (MB) or cu (MBS). 'Biological' ties will be registered as such: cu (real MBS). b) The notion of kin The concept of kin, neighbour, and friend are intrinsically linked in indigenous thought for they are expressed in a single word: cajei. This term derives from the verb caye, which means 'to talk'-'to converse'. Thus, ego's kin are fundamentally the people with whom ego can sustain a conversation, and their wider notion of kindred is based upon the mutual comprehension of language rather than upon ties of substance. As I will show in this thesis, speech proficiency is highly valued by the Airo-Pai and it is an organizing principle of social life. It is their understanding that proper speech and listening solve interpersonal conflicts and organize a "good life" (deoye paiye) in the community and between neighbouring peoples. By contrast, silence, poor communication, lies and the like, are connected to treachery and enmity. As it will be argued here, the ability to talk is the corner stone of marriage arrangements. The Airo-Pai distinguish between "close kin" (quena cajei or "very much kin": cajei airepa) and "far kin" (so'o cajei). Although this distinction is gradual and used with

flexibility depending on the specific social circumstances of the interaction (people are more or less close to one another), marriage with effective 'close' kin is proscribed. The inhabitants of a local group of settlements who interact on a frequent basis see themselves as a unity which is composed of 'close' and "a little far" kin. They express this local unity by the notion of "our branch" (mat secape). The universe of 'close' and 'far' kin

is shaped by two more classes. That of "other

people" (tiQ-paL)

and that of enemy

(pejiteque: "the angered"). For instance, the neighbouring Ouichua and Huitoto are both

said to be 'other people' and the Huitoto are also regarded as their traditional enemies. These classes of 'other people' and 'enemy' are not necessarily exterior to that of kin. Depending on the circumstances, differences are drawn between kin - for instance members of neighbouring settlements may consider themselves as 'other people' in certain occasions and as 'one people' in others. Conificts might erupt among previously friendly kin, driving them apart and transforming them into enemies. 1) Close kin: non-marriageable ldn The significance of the expression "my close kin" (ye 'ë quena cajeohua 'i) is contextual and gradual. People are considered to be more or less 'close' depending on the 48

circumstances and their interests. Regarding marriage reckoning, however, the core of 'close' kin is constituted by: a) The people falling in the category of sibling: that is the children of mother (jaco), father (jaque), pqueyojeo and pëqueyojei.

and b) The following descriptive relationships: FF, FM, MM, MF F,FB,FZ,M,MZ,MB FZS, FW, MBS, MBD S, D, ZS, Zn, BS, BD SS, SD, DS, DD

G+2 G+l G(0) (i-i G-2

'Close' kin are not marriageable partners, including all real cross-cousins. 2) Far kin: marriageable kin 'Far' kin are marriageable partners and constitute the class of potential afflnes. The field covered by 'far' kin is gradual and it might virtually be extended to the entirety of Western-Tukanoan speaking peoples. As I have pointed out in the last chapter, clan membership is not an important factor for the determination of marriageability, and both clan endogamy and clan exogamy are possible. By contrast, residential exogamy is an important factor which I will examine later on. The Airo-Pai say that marriage is especially correct when the kinship distance between the bride and the groom is "a little far". Marriage with more distant people is still correct but the Airo-Pai may not find it desirable to share their lives with complete strangers. Generally, people tend to repeat alliances established in the ascending generations. 3)Effective affines Effective affines and spouses are thought of as neither 'far' nor 'close' kin but specifically affines (hua-paz). When marriage is decided, the kinship terms previously used for the potential spouse and the potential affines are 'forgotten', as the Airo-Pai put it, and replaced by specific terms for effective affines. It should be pointed out that effective affines and spouses are fundamental to the procreation of 'close' kin in the descending generation because the children of effective affines are 'close' kin to one anoth&.

The children of my siblings in-law are the cross-cousins or parallel cousins of my children. The children of my parents in-law are the MB, MZ, or M (FB, FZ, F) of my child. The children of my children in-law are the S,D, BS, BD, ZS, Zn of my children. The children of my spouse are the siblings of my children. 49

SECTION 2: MARRIAGE CONVERSATION PAIRS Airo-Pai marriage cannot be thought of as the link between corporate groups or as an exchange between two intermarrying 'lines'. There is a principle in Airo-Pai society that a parent (mother and father) should marry his or her child with the child of a relative of a certain categorical type. The crucial point is that the Airo-Pai stress that marriage should be arranged in 'conversations' between the parents of the bride and the groom. In the past, these conversations were carried out formally but this formal practice is currently being abandoned. The central topics discussed during these meetings were whether the youngsters were capable of working and behaving morally (Vickers 1989:2 18), and whether they constituted suitable marriage partners given the categorical relationship between their parents. Marriage arrangements were carried out in three separate same-sex 'conversation pairs' constituted by: 1) the two mothers, 2) the two fathers, and 3) the bride's MM with the groom's FM. Marriageabiity was determined by the one-to-one relationship existing between the two partners of each 'conversation pair'. The Airo-Pal do have the idea of the 'correct' constitution of these 'conversation pairs, but like other Amazonian peoples, they manipulate their own system in order to justify their choices. al G+ 1 female conversation pair Ideally the one-to-one relationship between these 'conversation partners' should be as follows: - The bride's mother calls the groom's mother: pequeyojeo, (the latter calls the former: mamao) According to the logic of the kinship nomenclature a woman has three kinds of pequeyofeo:

1)the sister of M 2)the daughter of cu (MB) 3) the daughter of cu (MBS) The second case is the right one. Consequently, the adequate composition of this 'conversation pair' is such that the groom's mother should be the daughter of the cu (MB) of the bride's mother. This means that the two partners are same-sex cross-cousins (real or classificatory). And, the bride and the groom are second degree cousins (real or classificatory) (fig. 1) 50

(fig. 1) G+ 1 female conversation pair EGO (a) = the bride's mother b = the groom's mother

çrti o'

AfOA eo '.4) LX;

e1Pe7oPL_

e

cr.o.v (o3&a)

a and b are the G +1 female conversation partners The groom is the younger brother (yoje,) of the bride's mother Variation of avuncular marriage (flg.2) Oblique equations and the constitution of the G+ 1 female conversation pair EGO (a) = The bride's mother b - The groom's mother

A

51

1)Avuncular marriage The logic of the relationship terminology implies that the groom is the yojei (younger brother) of the bride's mother and the cu (MB) of the bride (and she is his jgao (ZD)). Therefore, correct marriage is a variation of avuncular marriage of the form: classificatory older ZD. Marriage with the real ZD, FZD, FFZD are proscribed. The Afro-Pal insist that the two mothers should not be sisters (real or classificatory) and that the bride's mother and the groom should not be siblings born from one woman. It should remarked that this form of marriage is a compromise between 'close' and 'far' marriage. Indeed, the groom is 'close' kin to the bride's mother and 'far' kin to the bride. Generally, the bride and the groom are of approximate age. 2)Understanding the oblique equations As I have shown above the skewing of generations of the relationship terminology should be understood in relation to the correct constitution of the female 6+1 'conversation pair'. As we have seen the correct 'conversation partner' of the bride's mother should be her pequeyojeo and her cross-cousin (real or classificatory). The satisfaction of this double requirement is intrinsically linked to the oblique equation of cu

(MB=MBS=MBSS) and the fact that cu is the father of pequeyojeo (see fig.2).

WI G+ I

male conversation nair

Ideally, the one-to-one relationship between these two partners should be as follows: -The bride's father calls the groom's father: cue,

(the latter calls the former: jyfae) Now, a man has three kinds of cue: 1) The brothers of M 2) The sons of cu (MB) 3) The sons of cue (MBS) The second case is the right one. The adequate composition of this 'conversation pair' is such that the groom's father should be the son of the cue (MB) of the bride's father. Consequently, the 'conversation partners' are same-sex cross-cousins (real or classificatory). And the bride and the groom are second degree cousins (real or classificatory) (see fig.3). 1)Alternate generations marriage According to the logic of the nomenclature, the groom is the cu (MBSS) of the bride's father and thus the ftcue (FMBSS) of the bride (she is his najeo). When speaking in 52

(Fig. 3) G+ 1 male conversation pair EGO (a) = the bride's father b = the groom's father cr

cttTr) 1cu

rAO

(c.u')

a and b are the G + 1 male conversation partners the groom is the cu of the bride's father Variation of marriage between alternate generations

(fig. 4) Oblique equations and the constitution of the G+ 1 male conversation pair EGO (a) = the bride's father b = the groom's father

(tdS, €;Cdl.,t

A_Q I ârooA cI

53

ç3r7JCD

Spanish, the Afro-Pal say that the groom is the "grandfathe? (abuelo) of the bride. Therefore, correct marriage - according to the Airo-Pai usage of Spanish terms - is a variation of marriage between alternate generations 6. Marriage between the real granddaughter and grandfather is strictly proscribed. But marriage with FMBSS (and reciprocally FFZSD) is correct. The Afro-Pal say that the important point is that the bride and the groom should be as 'far' in kin as possible, and in their view the tie between classificatory granddaughter" and Ngrandfather is the most distant and desirable one. It must be pointed out that normally the groom and the bride are of the same age. 2)Understanding the oblique equations Like for the 0 + 1 female 'conversation pair', the oblique equation of cu, (MB=MBS =MBSS) allows for the constitution of the correct 0+1 male 'conversation pair' (see flg.4). c) G+2 FEMALE CONVERSATION PAIR The correct categorical relationship between the bride's MM and the groom's FM should be that of sisters born from two sisters (real or classificatory matrilateral parallel cousins). It should be noted that if the bride's MM and the groom's FM were real sisters, this would imply the proscribed form of marriage between real cross-cousins in G +1. Therefore, correct marriage in each of the descending generations from G+2 entails that the existence of real sisters should be pushed upwards to 0+3. From this perspective, correct marriage is one in which a woman marries her DD with the SS of her classificatory sister (see fig.5). 1)Second degree patrilateral cross-cousin marriage The relationship between bride's MM and groom's FM determines the existence of

am not entirely satisfied with this approach, but I have decided to stick to the AfroPal translation of the meaning of ficuë (abuelo) because they use it in a consistent way. As I explain below, to the Airo-Pai the categories that they translate as grandparent-grand-child denote kinship 'distance' and marriageability but also potential conifict. Viveiros dc Castro (1991:15) notes that several Dravidian-type variations in Amazonia mark the alternate generations with affinal character. The question should be examined whether other 'oblique-equation' terminologies mark with affinal character the 'real' grand-parent- grand-child or the categories that indigenous speakers translate as grand-parent-grand-child when speaking a western language. If this were the case, the expression "alternate generations" might not be the adequate one, because as we see here, the groom and the bride are in fact second degree cousins and belong to the same generation. 54

(fig. 5) G+2 female conv.reation pair EGO (a) = the bride's maternal grandmother b the groom's paternal grandmother

(rtdj •c Is.;f;ce1ory)

_(

fToy - - -

LOA

T

-

.e.

(fig. 6) Second degree patrilat.ral cross-cousin marriage Amalgamated male (G+l) and female (G+l and G+2) conversation pairs. c

(Test

____ A (::I51J• _________

(riol_r e.&t

_-

Gi (.. Fz- (Lu.)

cdl.

!i

\

(class.) LT .; -.

roo(v4

Ego = groom a and b are classificatory siblings 55

cross-sex ties in (3+ 1. The point is that cross-sex ties are not treated directly but through same-sex relationships in the ascending generation. - In G+ 1, the bride's mother is the classificatory sister of the groom's father. Therefore, correct marriage is a variation of the form: second degree patrilateral crosscousin marriage. It follows that the groom is the bride's cu (MBS) (and she is his jwao (FZD)). The categories of the potential spouses are thus the same as the ones obtained by the (3+ 1 female 'conversation pair' (see fig.6), but the associated kinship distance is different (compare the information added in the brackets). When the Airo-Pai speak about cross-sex ties in G+1 they emphasize the fact that the bride's mother and the groom's father should not be siblings born from the same woman. SECTION 3: A MODEL OF SYMMETRICAL ALLIANCE a) Second degree bilateral cross-cousin marriage From the examination of the constitution of 'conversation pairs' the picture of second degree patrilateral cross-cousin marriage has emerged. This picture must be completed by the fact that the Airo-Pai consider it highly desirable that a set of sisters should marry a set of brothers and that a man should marry the sister of his brother-in-law. These are statistically common forms of marriage (see appendix 1). The indigenous phrasing of these forms of marriage usually takes the point of view of 0 + 1 because, as we have seen, the Airo-Pai think of marriage in terms of categorical relationships between the parents of the bride and the groom. If we integrate this data into the above picture of correct marriage, then we obtain a 'model' of correct marriage of the form: marriage with the second degree bilateral cross-cousin (fig.7). In this model, symmetric alliance is repeated each 2.d. generation. This model involves two sets, each constituted by two brother-sister pairs. It should be noted that none of the elements of one set should be the real sibling of a member of the other set (fig. 8). - In G+2, we have two separated sets, each constituted by two brother-sister pairs which perform direct sister's exchange. -In (3+1, thedaughters of the first set marry the sons of the second setandvice versa, hence forming two new sets of married couples. - In 0(0), within each set, the daughter of the first couple marries the son of the second couple and vice-versa, hence forming two new sets of married couples. 56

G+2 FF FFZ ñcuë ?CO

FMB FM necue ñeco

MF MFZ ñecuë ñeco

MMB MM necue ñeco

FZ G+1 F jaquë pëco

FL FMBD huaë neco

MB M jaco cu,

MMBS ML huao hecue

G(0) eB eZ ayo aye yB yZ yojei yojeo

WB W huaë paco

MBS MBD pëquë- cu yojeo

MMBSS MMBSD necuë ñeco

G-1 S D mama- mama- que Co

ZS ZD juraë jutao

DH SW huaë huao

MBDS MBDD yojeo )'ojei

G-2 SS SD najei najeo

ZSS ZSD najei najeo

DS DD najei najeo

ZDS ZDD najei najeo

(fig. 7) Airo-Pai affinal and kin terms, male ego

G+2 FF FFZ ñecuë nco

FMB FM ñecuë neco

MF MFZ ñcuë ñeco

MMB MM ñecuë ñeco

G+1 F FZ jaquë peco

FL FMBD huaë nco

MB M cu jaco

MMBS ML huao ñcue

G(0) eB aye yB yojei

H HZ paquë huao

MBS MBD pëquë- CU yojeo

MMBSS MMBSD ñcuë ñco

G-1 S D mama- mama- quë co

BS BD jutaê jurao

DH SW huaë huao

MBDS MBDD yojeo yojei

G-2 SS SD najei najeo

BSS BSD najei najeo

DS DD najei najeo

BDS najei

eZ ayo yZ yojeo

(fig. 8) Airo-Pai affinal and kin terms, female ego

57

BDD najeo

-

these 0(0) couples form brother-sister pairs

equivalent to those existing in G+2. b) Residential exogamy The Airo-Pai stress that one should marry a person from another settlement. In the past residence was patrilocal for men and virilocal for women; thus all the inhabitants of a settlement were patrilateral 'close' kin and therefore unsuitable marriage partners. Today the situation is mixed and we find cases of virilocality, uxorilocality and ambiocality. Nevertheless, the Airo-Pai still prefer to marry someone from another settlement because co-residence is seen to be characteristic of 'close' kin ties. In addition, they explain that settlement exogamy alone is not sufficient to assure correct marriage because 'close' kin also live in other settlements (like the matrilateral kin - real MB and his children). Therefore, two conditions must be satisfied simultaneously: 1) correct categorical relationships between the parents of the bride and the groom, and 2) settlement exogamy. Today intermarriage takes place between all the Afro-Pal settlements in the Peruvian territory. Using the expression coined by Descola (1986:19), it could be said that the Afro-Pal territory in Peru constitutes an 'endogamous nexus' with exogamous settlements7. c) Comparison with the Eastern-Tukanoan peoples of the Vaupes This model of symmetric alliance for the Western-Tukanoan Airo-Pai may be compared to the model drawn by C. Hugh-Jones (1979:33-37) for the Eastern-Tukanoan peoples of the Vaupés. In the Vaupés we find 'close' marriage with a real cross-cousin (with emphasis on the patrilateral side) and a tripartite structure of alliances embodied in three named Exogamous Groups. By contrast, among the Eastem-Tukanoan Afro-Pal we find 'distant' marriage with a second degree cross-cousin also with stress on the patrilateral side. But, unlike the Eastern-Tukanoans who give precedence to patrilateral ties, among the Afro-Pal both patrilateral and matrilateral ties are important in determining correct marriage in G(0). To my knowledge, the Airo-Pai tri-phasic cycle of repetition of alliances is not embodied in labelled exogamous groups, but rather is

'Regional endogamy and residential exogamy also characterize the Western-Tukanoan peoples of Ecuador (see (Vickers 1989:193) and the Western-tukanoan Mai-Huna of Peru (Belier 1990:88). 58

of repetition of alliances is not embodied in labelled exogamous groups, but rather is entailed by the prescription to marry 'far' and outside the settlement. And, both prescriptions are satisfied in the correct constitution of the three marriage 'conversation

SECTION 4: THE CIRCULATION OF BRIDES a) Offerings to matrilateral kin The Airo-Pai (men and women) clearly state that the peaceful achievement of the marriage conversations depends on the "desire to give away" (insi 'I) the bride. The groom's parents also say that they "want to give away" their son, but the crucial point for the Airo-Pai is that the bride's side should want the marriage. Moreover, they stress that the bride herself is the one who wants to get married and that the groom can do nothing but accept her choice. As the Airo-Pai put it: "if the woman wants, what can the man do?". Gow (1991:131) remarks for the Piro of the Bajo Urubamba that "young women have the advantage in choosing their sexual partners". The same argument applies to the Airo-Pai, among whom women are always said to be the ones who initiate the flirtation and the marriage8. In reality, a woman's decision may be strongly influenced by her parents, her MB or other kin, but marriage is only possible if she takes up the formal role of initiator. Regardless of the real events or the pressures put upon the bride, her parents or other kin, a friendly alliance is always presented as the willing offering of herself by the bride. From the Airo-Pai point of view, correct marriage involves 'bride givers' and 'bride accepters' because the idiom of 'giving' and 'accepting' is the language of peace and proper behaviour between friendly kin. The inverse of this, forced marriage and kidnapping are the faces of enmity, and these are strongly condemned by them9. From the point of view of the 'conversation pairs', marriage entails the following 'bride offerings':

8The idea that it is the girl who must invite coitus is wide spread in Amazonia, see for instance Goldman (1963:140) for the Eastern-Tukanoan Cubeo. 9Arhem (1981:149) describes in contrast three types of acceptable marriage for the Eastern-Tukanoan Makuna: 1) generalized reciprocity (like the Airo-Pai case), 2) direct exchange and 3) bride capture. He shows that the first type of marriage takes place between friendly affies, whereas the second and third types take place between distant and unrelated allies. 59

1) A woman gives her daughter to her pqueyojeo (MBD) 2) A man gives his daughter to his cu (MBS) 3) A woman gives her daughter's daughter to her sister (MW) Therefore, each element of the bride's side gives the bride away to its respective samesex matrilateral kin. It becomes clear that the categories of pequeyojeo and cu constitute the female and male categories of potential affinity in G +1. In other words, a girl marries the son of the pequeyojeo (MBD) of her mother, who is also the son of the cu (MBS) of her father, and who is also the son of the classificatory brother of her mother. As I have demonstrated above, piqueyojeo and cu are also the categories for potential sister-in-law and husband obtained by the 6+1 and 6+2 inter-female 'conversation pairs'. These are thus the categories of potential affinity in G(0). bi Same-sex siblin2s In-law Upon marriage, the kinship terms used between potential spouses and potential affines are 'forgotten', as the Airo-Pai put it, and replaced by specific terms for effective affines. Same-sex siblings in-law call each other by the reciprocal term huao (female speakers) and huaë (male speakers), while cross-sex siblings in-law call each other with the reciprocal term huejao (male speaker) and huejae (female speaker) which relates to the idea of wedding (huefaye)'°. Here, I concentrate on the link between same-sex siblings in-law in order to follow the evolution of the relationship between the children of the 'conversation partners'. As I have demonstrated above, the marriage 'conversation partners' in G+ 1 are samesex cross-cousins. The establishment of an effective marital tie (more precisely the bearing of children) creates a separation between those potential affines who become effective affines and those potential affines which remain so in the absence of a marital tie. In the latter case, potential affinity is conveyed to the descending generations until the establishment of a marital tie transforms it into effective affinity. In the former case, the children of same-sex siblings in-law are real cross-cousins, hence 'close' kin and nonmarriageable partners. In the next descending generation, the children of same-sex real cross-cousins are considered to be 'far' kin and therefor marriageable. The following table summarizes the evolution of the one-to-one same-sex same-generation

'°Cross-sex siblings are potential sexual partners, in the case of the death of a spouse, polygamy and informal forms of polyandry. 60

relationships: (+1) Conversation partner: my cross-cousin (real or classificatory) = parent of my child's marriageable kin (0) Bifurcation point: a) Marital tie: my sibling in-law = parent of my child's non-marriageable kin b) No marital tie: my potential afflne = parent of my child's marriageable kin (-1) Reunion point: a) Real cross-cousin: parent of my child's marriageble kin b) Distant kin: parent of my child's marriageable kin Therefore, the alternation between the classes of 'parent of my child's marriageable kin' and 'parent of my child's non-marriageable kin' exhibits three phases and a 'Hegeian look' that evolves from unity, then difference, and back to a twofold unity. In (i-i the relationship is the same as the one existing between 'conversation partners', and the cycle of marriage conversations starts up in G- 1. Interestingly, related and unrelated potential 'conversation partners' are not formally distinguished. This reveals the openended character of the Afro-Pal marriage system. New marriages might be arranged between unrelated 'conversation partners', although generally people prefer to repeat a pre-existing alliance, 'a la Dumont'. c) Marria2e decision making It is difficult to bring a clear cut answer to the question of who holds more authority over marital decisions because each 'conversation pair' is somehow autonomous. Moreover, depending on the concrete circumstances and the personalities involved, the decision might be strongly influenced by a person who is neither the parent nor the grand-parent of the bride. According to the life histories I recorded, the bride's real MB (cu() has as much to say in the decision as her father does. The overall picture is as such: In G+ 1 men and women have power and try to find a decision convenient for everybody but the men take the leading ritual roles. Nevertheless, the two grandmothers in G+2 are attributed the highest authority. Often, informants explained that their grandmothers were particularly active in ensuring their marriage. I will suggest an interpretation to this stress on the ties between sisters in the next section. 1)Case study I now turn to the description of the conditions that lead to the marriage of the elder son of the headman of the community of Huajoya in 1990. It will be shown that formal marriage conversations are not always held but that both parents are active in the

61

negotiations". It will also be shown that the Afro-Pal manipulate the system to their advantage depending on the specific circumstances of their life. At the time of my fieldwork, Juan's wife Senaida was unhappy because Juan's duties as a community chief kept him away from the community too often. They had begun the construction of a new house, but Juan never bad enough time to finish it. Another problem concerned their 17 year old elder son, Miguel. He had left for the Putumayo basin and refused to come back. He was living in the house of the chief of the settlement of Bellavista and his parents were afraid that he would soon be married to the chiefs daughter and settle over there. Senaida moaned over the absence of her son. If he were at home, she said, he would hunt and help her during Juan's frequent trips. There were rumours that she was about to abandon Juan and move with her elder son. Finally, she did leave but Juan went with her. They came back a month later with their son. A week later, it was rumoured they wanted to marry their son off. In those days, four girls from the Putumayo basin were visiting the settlement. One of them had already taken the initiative to asked for Senaida's son in marriage, but Senaida had rejected her in the fear that the girl might take her son back to her own house in the Putumayo. This girl had already been married twice, but she had "thrown away" both her husbands, she explained, because they "did not know how to work". One day I was secretly told that a decision had been taken: Miguel would be married to one of the visiting girls who was an orphan. This was convenient, since she had no parents to whom to take him. However, this girl was in love with another boy (from her own community) but his parents opposed their marriage on the basis that she had too many young siblings to look after. So she had come to Huajoya to overcome her sadness. The wedding was to take place on the same evening of the day I was told of the plans for the marriage. Another couple had called for a working party and they had prepared enough manioc beer for the celebration. In the evening, the whole of the community was gathered at the house where the celebration was to be held. There was a general atmosphere of confusion for the girl had hidden in the forest and no one could find her. We sat there talking and drinking for an hour or two, waiting for the people who were searching for her. Juan was angry and anxious because he knew that his wife would leave him if they could not secure the wedding of their son in the community. "How could she reject my son? Did she consider that he was not properly brought up, that he was not disposed to work?", he was saying to his neighbours. Meanwhile, Miguel's mother was arranging to marry her son off to another 13 year old girl from the community of Huajoya. Juan joined in and spoke with the father of the girl. They insisted that their son ought to be married that very evening. This young girl (who did not expect to be married on that evening) was suddently grabbed by her mother and made to stand facing Miguel. The confusion increased as every adult person in the gathering wanted to give a speech, especially the men. After the speeches, the newlyweds were made to lie together in a hammock, and it was tied up on them. The parents of both the newlyweds were satisfied, and the anger at the fugitive girl vanished. In the morning, I paid a visit to Senaida. Her new daughter-in-law had already moved her things into her house and she was grating manioc to prepare bread. Senaida was visibly happier but her son and his new wife looked rather grim. Spontaneously, Juan (who knew that I was interested in marriage arrangements) explained that the marriage of his son was "just about right". He explained that it would

"See Chapter 5 for an analysis of the wedding feast.

62

(fig. 9) The marriage of Juan's son The distance between the bride's father and the groom's father is "a bit too close".

on

(fig. 10) Marriage from the point of view of the two classificatory sisters In 6+2

G+3 limits of living memory

.. male line of filiation

female line of filiation

(+2) a and b are classificatory sistet.s (+1) c and d are classificatory siblings (0) the bride (e) and the groom (1) are classificatory cross-cousins

63

have been better to marry him to an outsider and that the new spouses were, in fact, a bit too closely related. But, be said it was airight because his son and his new wife would now remain in the community. Patrilateral and matrilateral ties between the newlyweds: Juan explained that although the relationship between the bride and the groom was "a bit to close", it was acceptable because 'the two mothers were not sisters' (fig.9) SECTION 5: THE PHILOSOPHY OF 'FAR' MARRIAGE a) The theme of the two sisters As we have seen the Airo-pai tend to phrase correct marriage by referring to ties between sisters in the ascending generations. The importance of the pair of sisters for the organization of marriage echoes a leading motif of the Airo-Pai mythology related to marriage and the creation of opposite domains. The most notorious pair of sisters is that of the daughters of Tapir (Huque) married to Moon (lafle) (Cipolletti 1988:29-57). By the end of the mythic cycle which tells the adventures of Moon on this earth (see Chapter 4), the younger sister remains faithful to Moon. She is sent to reign over the celestial

realm and is associated with corn. The older sister leaves Moon for Thunder (muju). Moon sends her to the underworld, where she reigns, and is connected with manioc. Without exploring myth in great detail, the mythic theme of the two sisters in an interpretation of indigenous conceptualizations of marriage does appear to be significant. If we look carefully at the pattern of relationships emerging from the marriage conversations, we see that the two grandmothers in 0+2 also create two opposite domains because one of them engenders a female line of 'fihiation by sex' and the other generates a male line of 'fihiation by sex'. As I will show in the next chapter, the idea of 'filiation by sex' is extremely important among the Airo-Pal because men and women are somehow conceived of as two different 'species' of human kind. From the perspective of the 0+2 female 'conversation pair', correct marriage reads as follows (fig. 10): - In 6+2, there are two sisters (who in turn, are the daughters of two sisters in G+3). One sister engenders a male line of 'fihiation by sex', while the other engenders a female line of 'filiation by sex'. - In 0(0), these two lines of 'filiation by sex' intermarry and from this union two new sisters are born and the cycle goes on. Now, if the bride's MM and the groom's FM were real sisters this would imply 64

proscribed 'close' marriage between real cross-cousins in G+ 1 (see fig.6). 'Far' marriage in each of the descending generations requires that the existence of real sisters should be removed to G+3. In other words, it should be located outside the lived experience of the people in G(0). Such a stress upon paired feminine generative powers sets apart the AiroPal from the Eastern-Tukanoan groups of the Vaupes who consider that each Exogamous group descends from a single primal anaconda ancestor (C. Hugh-Jones 1979:33). Moreover, the Afro-Pal pair of sisters is not required to be of remote origin since it may exist as in (3+3, at the corner of living memory. If we compare real cross-cousin marriage to second degree cross-cousin marriage it appears that the former entails marriage between the grandchildren of a single woman. This would be unacceptable to the Afro-Pal because in their view it takes two sisters to make the world go round and generate marriageable partners in the descending generations. This is, I suggest, the fundamental 'metaphysical' presupposition which underlines the Airo-Pai prescription to marry 'far'. By stressing the pair of sisters, that which is to be obtained is the 'square' of the basic cross-cousin marriage model. The model of symmetric alliance that I have drawn here for the Afro-Pal entails four brothersister pairs performing a direct sister exchange. Symmetric alliance is repeated each 2nd generation, and the boundaries of marriageability are pushed away to the second degree cross-cousin. bi Inter-female and inter-male conceptions of affinity

Let's return to the categories of the potential affines. As I have shown, correct marriage has two faces: its inter-female face is avuncular and its inter-male face is marriage between alternate generations. Here, I will discuss in brief the attitudes attached to the categories of potential spouse and affines. From my observations and the life

histories I recorded it appears that cu and its reciprocal jtao/E are expected to be very friendly, supportive, and entertaining towards one another'2 . This is particularly true of those cu who are MB (real or classificatory). In contrast, the attitude between members of alternate generations is marked by ambivalence. In indigenous thought, alternate generations constitute 'distant' poles, even between genealogical grand-parent and

'2It is difficult to tell whether in the past the categories of the potential affines had ceremonial importance in other fields than marriage arrangements. Today, a man may adopt his sister's children (particularly younger sister) if she dies. 65

grandchild. On the one hand, grand-parents are treated with strong affection, and they play a crucial role in equipping their grandchildren with skills for social life. On the other hand, antagonism between alternate generations is relatively common, especially between maternal grandfather and grandson. For instance, I recorded several cases where the maternal grandfather was suspected of having killed his grandson by sorcery. From the above data, it becomes clear that the inter-female face of avuncular marriage stresses the friendly and cooperative side of affinity, whereas the inter-male face of marriage between alternate generations indicates the distance and the potentially dangerous side of affinity'3. In daily life, the attitude toward in-laws depends on actual behaviour. Hard working, helpful and generous in-laws are treated with manifest love and respect. Lazy, grumpy or stingy in-laws are criticized and neglected. Cross-generation and cross-sex in-laws show restraint and distance towards one other, but this is also the habitual attitude between cross-sex and cross-generation kin. In general, the behaviour between in-laws does not differ greatly from the informal and friendly attitude displayed between close kin. This suggests that the attitudes displayed during daily life between affines is modelled upon the avuncular face of marriage. This is not surprising, since as we have seen, this is the image of peace and cooperation, a feature that is characteristic of the relationship between community members. Although affmes are called and refered to by specific affinal terms, co-residents treat each other like kin. Co-residence thus blurs the difference between affmes and kin (for comparison with the Guianese groups, see Rivière 1984:70).

13'fl difference between inter-female and inter-male affinity is found among other Amazonian peoples, for instance, the Jivaro Ashuar studied by Taylor (1983). Taylor reports that inter-female affinity tend to be 'consanguinized' whereas inter-male affinity tends to be associated with aggressive behaviour. 66

CHAPTER THREE: TflJ 'UNRIPE-PEOPLE' AND THE LIVING

This chapter has two main objectives: first, to lay out the basic notions of Afro-Pal cosmology and shamanism and second, to explore how the dead are thought to see the living according to this cosmo-vision. Throughout this work, I examine Airo-Pai social organization in relation to the meaning that social life has for them, and it will be seen that the shamanic material is essential to the exploration of their understandings of the social. It will be shown that shainanic practice and thought bear direct influence upon day-to-day matters: food and craft production, consumption, health, morality, and sexuality. In this chapter, the discussion of how the dead are thought to see the living will shed light upon the place of marriage and parenthood for the reproduction of Airo-Pai society. It will be shown that in the eyes of the dead living men and women are seen as two different species of birds: men are seen as oropendolas (icteridus sp.) and the living women are seen as parrots (anzazona sp.). My aim will be to investigate the social meaning of these cosmological metaphorsTM , to use the expression coined by Crocker (1977b: 165), and to examine the significance of this conceptualization of gender for the enactment of social life in the Airo-Pai settlement. My analysis will draw upon the spontaneous indigenous exegesis of their own symbolism. Indigenous discussions convinced me that the Airo-Pai have a deep knowledge of animal customs and the symbiotic and parasitic relationships between species, as most of their observations are confirmed by western zoologists. I will argue that this symbolism of birds gives expression to indigenous views of reproduction as an endeavour which must be undertaken by each gender autonomously. From the point of view of the dead, women are seen as the daughters of their mothers and men as the sons of their fathers. Motherhood and fatherhood, it will be shown, are conceived in symmetrical terms and are defined by daily work, such as pottery for women and fibreweaving for men. Both genders must carry out equivalent work for procreation: each makes his or her own 'nest', and feeds and protects his or her same-sex young. From the very notions that underpin this view of single-sex reproduction will emerge the idea of cross-sex complementarity. While from the point of view of the dead living men and women are seen as two autonomous species, in 'this world' society is possible only if these two independent 'species' unite in ties of affinity and combine their respective work for production and reproduction. Among the living, it will be shown, 67

society is created through the growth of children and this is achieved with the labour of both spouses. The link that will be drawn between sexuality and livelihood leads us to the Airo-Pai conception of the settlement as a community in which individuals of both genders make each other work so as to raise their children together. Among the Afro-Pal the distribution of work follows gender lines. Men are fibreweavers and carpenters. Their major means of obtaining food is through hunting and fishing. Women are cotton-weavers and potters, and their predominant way of providing food is through horticulture. Women are also cooks and house cleaners, and men are shamans. They have the power of transforming and 'cleaning' the person against disease. This division of labour is seen as highly positive and necessary by the Airo-Pai. In this and later chapters, it will be my aim to show that the gendered distribution of tasks is the basis of complementarity, the reciprocity of services between husband and wife, and of the virtual self-sufficiency of the married pair. In this sense, a married couple is the minimal viable domestic unit. Afro-Pat stress however that the couple should not live in isolation, because women should be able to share their lives with other women, and men with other men. In section 1, I discuss conceptions about 'the other side' of reality and how it is contacted through shamanism. The metaphors of birds and the indigenous exegesis of them are introduced in section 2. Then I move in section 3 to the examination of ecological data on these birds. In section 4! interpret these metaphors in the light of both indigenous exegesis and the ecological material. I conclude in section 5 with a discussion of the moral content of these metaphors and their implications for Airo-Pai social organization. SECTION 1: 'THE OThER SIDE' AND SHAMAMSM

Like other Amazonian groups, the Airo-Pal understand that reality is not single but multi-dimensional. They describe this multiplicity in terms of vision: "When our eyes are open we see "this side" (lye tente). When our eyes are closed, then we see the multiple layers of the "other side" (yeque tente)". Both 'sides' are considered to be equally true, but access to them differs. 'This side' is the realm of daily activities that are common to all men and women. It is the normal world of the community, which includes the gardens, the surrounding forest and the surface of the rivers. It is 'this side' that Airo-Pal see and move in when they are awake. The 'other side' is invisible to daily eyes although 68

it is always present. The entry to the 'other side' requires a specialized "vision" (wyá). The Airo-Pai seek to establish contact with the other-world so as to obtain knowledge and protection from it. Dreams and hallucinations induced by natural substances such as banisteriopsis caspi (yajé), brugmansia (pefi), brunfelsia (ujajw), or liquid tobacco (mate) are understood to open the vision for and to be 'trips' into the 'other side'. Such communication between this and the other worlds is a dangerous enterprise, for once the entrance is made into this alter reality, it is said to render the human visible to the monsters (lzuaU) who feed on human intestines, causing them disease and death. Heavy rainfall and certain smells -like menstrual odours - also make people visible and easy prey to the othei:woitlly monsters. On a daily basis, it is safer for the two 'sides' to remain separated. Contact should only be sought in conditions which allow for the relative control of other-worldly dangers, which is the case during the hallucinogenic-drinking sessions held communally by Airo-Pai men. a) HaUucinogens-taking and singing sessions

The taking of hallucinogenic substances is a highly complex practice which is considered to illuminate and empower the person 1 . The Airo-Pai shaman (yaje uncuque: yage drinker) learns to communicate with the 'other side' under the guidance and protection of an elder shaman, who is preferably one's own father or paternal grandfather. Hallucinogen-drinking sessions are held communally late in the evening and throughout the night, under the direction of the most knowledgeable shaman of the community. All the men are initiated into the practice during the puberty rites, but only a minority continue to progress throughout their lives. Others remain at a certain phase of their training. Women may learn the shamanic practice as well, but they generally do so after the menopause because women in child-bearing age should not be exposed to the dangers of the other-world (see Chapter 4). Nevertheless they usually know about experiences of the other-world undergone by their kinsmen and especially by their husbands. Far from being an entirely esoteric form of knowledge, many aspects of shainarnc thought are discussed with women and other members of the community during informal conversation. Normally husband and wife relate their dreams, thoughts and

rituals of shamanism of the western-Tukanoan peoples have been described by Langdon for the Siona of Colombia (1974, 1979a, l979b), Belier (1988) for the Mai Huna of Peru, and by Cipolletti (1987, l988b, 1988c) and Vickers (1989) for the AiroPai (Secoya) of Ecuador. 69

experiences to each other. They interpret them together, seeking guidance and power from the other-world which will help them to make this world a more comfortable one. As an apprentice obtains more "vision" (Toyd), he learns to travel further into the other-world and to bring to this world other-worldly entities to speak through his mouth. In indigenous thought, a person who possesses other-worldly "wisdom" (taM) accumulates powers that are both vital and lethal to the living and like other Amazonian shamans, Airo-Pai shamans are also morally ambiguous 2. Their scope goes beyond activities which might be qualified as either 'sorcery', good or bad, because they are seen as necessary to the growth of gendered and moral persons, for both men and women. These other-worldly powers are regarded as equipping the self with skills for the enactment of all activities of livelihood, child rearing, and social life in the community (see Chapter 4 and CICAME 199th). b) Shamanic chants and experience of the other-world Singing plays a crucial role in the shamanic meetings. The leading shaman sings first a phrase which is then repeated by his followers in chorus. As Townsley (1988:137) has argued for the Panoan speaking Yaminahua, shamanic chants among the Afro-Pal are techniques for creating and sustaining the visionary experience of the shamans gathered in the session. A common feature of the content of these chants is the repetition of the question: "have you seen (this) now?" (iflçquë yure7), which according to the explanations of the shamans is an assertion more than a question since it means:"this is what you should have seen". Chanting is a means of orchestrating and structuring culturally specific 'visions' in each of the participants in the shamanic session. The chants are said to express the "conversation" held between the other-worldly beings and the shaman. The Airo-Pai are highly confident of the power of these "conversations". The main problem for the shaman is to find the adequate spirit because this can only occur, it is thought, if the spirit decides to manifest itself. But once the contact is established and the spirits are "talked to", the Afro-Pal are convinced that the shaman could obtain from them what he requires 3. For instance, if a shaman fails to cure 2For comparison see for instance, Crocker (1985:211) for the Bororo and Chaumeil (1983:316) for the Yagua. 3The Afro-Pal explain that by having sexual intercourse with an other-worldly 'woman' and fathering a spiritual 'child' of her, the shaman gains great 'wisdom' and establishes good connections with the other-world. For instance, a man told me that his 70

a patient, it would be attributed to the fact that he did not "converse" with the right spirit (for comparison see Goldman 1963:270). The words of the chants are said to be true statements about the alter reality, and this is because the shaman is understood to experience the other-world physically under the influence of the hallucinogens. Only shamans of renown are considered able to 'fly' to the 'other side' without the need of hallucinogens. In all cases, the experience of the other-world is conceived of in terms of embodiment. The Airo-Pai explain that the shaman takes off the human 'clothes', that are his body and particularly his "skin" (canihul), and puts on other-worldly 'clothes'. This change of body is often described in terms of burning away. For instance, they say that when the "drunkenness" (huepeye) of brugma,uia arrives: "it is like a ravaging fire in a corn fallow". The flame-s approach and reduce the shaman into ashes, from which his "soul"(joyo) emerges in the shape of a bird4. Thus 'dressed' he can travel to the other-

world. This change of body also involves a change of language since the other-worldly beings are said to speak their own language which needs to be 'put on' by the shaman in order to converse with them5. The shamanic chants use normal Airo-Pai vocabulary although with some specific grammatical forms. The meaning of these words however is quite different from those they have in normal life and they have an analogical construction. The translation of the shamanic vocabulary into everyday language is an art in its own right. The Airo-Pai shamans excel at both approaching the other-world through their chants and interpreting the meaning of these chants by translating them into every-day speech. The crucial difference between the words of the chants and the indigenous exegesis of them resides in the use of the simile. The exegesis makes salient use of the comparative form: "it is like" (-jr paiye) which is not a feature present in the chant.

father had two 'sons' from the other-worldly 'mother of the jaguars' (huanteanco) which he considered as his brothers.

4The species of this bird varies depending on the type of transformation undergone by the shaman. For instance, when travelling to the land of the cotinga-people (/ësaipëpaD the shaman is transformed into a cotinga bird while in order to travel into the world of the 'unripe-people' (see section 2) the shaman is transformed into an oropendola bird. 3Townsley (1988:139) reports that Yaminahua shamans name "twisted words" the analogical vocabulary they use in their shainanic chants. The meaning of these metaphors is culturally conventional and known by the majority of Yaminahua shamans. The same argument applies to Airo-Pai shamanic analogies. 71

Therefore, the exegesis has a clear analogical construction that the chant does not have6. According to the Airo-Pai the chants are literally statements about the real constitution of the cosmos. These statements are said to be real because they are seen to express the 'bodily' experience of the shaman during his 'trips' to 'the other side'. Therefore, the analogies drawn during the shamanic exegesis are seen to reveal the reality of the otherworld. Overing has argued for the Piaroa (1990:618) that shamanic truth are "explicitly tied to a world of values" and that they are also statements about "agency in the universe" 7 . The same argument applies to the Airo-Pai who play upon analogical and literal expressions in order to set up a bridge between this and the other world. For instance (as I will examine in detail below) in the other-world women are said to be "parrots". This is explained by the shaman by the fact that in the everyday world women are 'like parrots'. As I will show, this 'cosmological metaphor' entails that in this world women and parrots are regarded to possess a similar form of sexual and productive agency, and this is highly significant for their wider understanding of a reality that comprises both the realm of the dead and that of the living. c) Conception of the cosmos

Each shaman has an idiosyncratic understanding of the cosmos rooted in his own personal hallucinogenic 'visions' and obtained through the knowledge passed on by his masters. Yet most Airo-Pai shamans agree on some of its general features. For example, the cosmos is constituted of multiple layers of different worlds distributed horizontally and vertically, and each of these worlds is inhabited by a particular type of other-worldly beings. The 'earth's mass' (yejahuë) is said both to float on water and to be cooked as it rests on three pottery legs. The human world, 'this earth' (lye yeja), occupies the central ldyer. Below, there are different realms 'inside the earth' (yeja sanahu), while above the human earth there are several heavenly realms (maiëm6). A major separation

6See Sapir (1977: 17-31) and Crocker (197Th) for a discussion of the social uses of

metaphor. These authors remark that metaphoric process is not a simple game of substitution , but rather a creative structuring of experience where the interplay of two (apparently) disparate terms reveal deep cultural understandings. As will be shown, this argument fits well Airo-Pai analogical thought. As Overing (1990) and Viveiro dc Castro (1986b) point out, if the people we are studying think that the 'other side' and its inhabitants are j then the analyst should take this into account in order to understand indigenous conceptions of social organization in relation to their cosmology. 72

(fig. 11) AIro-Pal cosmos

• -

/ ••. 8

•

•

•

•

...i (I

I

'.

a

1) quena sacahue (stone tree) 2) graftequëpo-paj (top stone-people) 3) yoco huirt-paj (paulliania-people) 4) jesaipe-paj (cotinga bird-people) 5) pisasa-paj (small bird?-people) 6) jMa-paj (unripe/green-people) 7) siripepi (clouds) 8) yehui-paj (ochroma wood-people) 9) Curi-Huari Huati (important head of the huati (monsters)) 10)jëflaya-paj (green-lake-people) 11) ocopoya-paj (low river-people)

12)jicomu-paj (people with tails) 13) Masehuë anque (red hairy white) 14) Dëoco nomio (the woman who made the earth sink) Huque (Tapir) and Muju (thunder)

73

is drawn by the "path of the sun" (ë ma 'a). The sun is a red macaw which crosses the sky on his canoe, and just above this path live the 'unripe/green-people"(jefla-pafj, the 'heavenly' protectors of the Airo-Pai. The top part of the universe is constituted by a two-branched silk-cotton tree (ceibo ap.) or a two-branched lupuna tree (clzorisia sp.). From one branch hangs a cotton-sloth (ye? uhu) and the other hangs a wasps nest (uti) and a trongo bird (cc 'a) who is eating the wasps. In the fork between the two branches sits a parrot (hue 'co). Fig. 11 is my own drawing made after the explanations given to me by an older AfroPal shaman (see CICAME (1990a:77), Mercier (1990:54) and Ortiz-Rescanière (1975) for other representations). The Airo-Pai themselves do not ordinarily make this type of representational picture. Their own drawings are highly abstract (see Langdon (1974) for Siona designs). SECTION 2: MEN AND WOMEN IN ThE EYES OF THE 'UNRIPE-PEOPLE' a) The world of the 'unripe-people'

The "unripe-people" (lena-pal) are the 'angelical' guardians of health and morality on this earth. In the Aim-Pal representation of death, the "soul of the person" (paj joyô) of the recently dead join the unripe-people in the 'heavens' (matemó). Here, I give a brief description of the ritual that must be performed in order to transform the recently dead into an unripe-person. Upon the death of a person, the body is buried and the shaman takes hallucinogens in order to contact the "perfume-people" (nuni-paj, nuni:ciperacae sp.). These 'people' come down to earth and take the dead - body and soul - up to their 'heavenly' place. There, the "mother of the perfumes" (nun? jaco) - washes the dead in perfumes and gives him or her new flesh, teeth and hair. Thus renewed, the dead person is then given two doses of perfume to drink. The first dose allows the dead to forget his kin on earth and transforms him or her into a young 'unripe-child'. The second dose of perfume makes the child grow up at once and bestows him or her with the knowledge of everything possible. The unripe-people are said to live organized into clans; each lives with the others of their own clan in villages along one of the banks of the "hot-sandriver" (umejasiaya)' (also see CICAME 1990a:76-83; Cipolletti 1988c:90-91).

$Jf the ritual were not performed, it is understood that the dead person could not join the unripe-people. The complete transformation which occurs to the person after death 74

In 'heavens' the "unripe-people" lead an existence in a paradisical realm of energy, easiness and sameness. The trees are short and full of fruits easy

to

pick. The nvers are

straight, unlike those which meander through the forest. Their water is transparent and not deep. Fish are visible and caught without effort. Men and women are short and beautiful, eternal teenagers. All the boys and girls have the same size and the same face. They are perfumed and decorated with necklaces which give the sound 'keeree keeree' as they approach. Time in 'heavens' is spent dancing and drinking, where the harmonious atmosphere is never spoiled. There is no conflict and no organic flux: 'anger', suffering, fights, illness, menstruation, bodily birth and death never occur in 'heavens'. Joanna Overing (1992c) argues that the Piarca notion of the after-life reveals a world of sameness in which organic flux, difference and affinity are non-existent. The dead copulate between "those of a kind", that is between siblings, and no children are born from these incestuous pleasures. Like the Piaroa, the Airo-Pai state that affinity and bodily procreation do not exist among their unripe-people. The realm of the unripe-people is an utopic world of sameness but it is infertile in the organic sense. However, unlike the Piaroa who say that the spirits of the dead have lost all their knowledge oi social life, the Airo-Pai say that their unripe-people possess the infinite knowledge and energy of growth which is contained within their

nuni

perfumes (ciparaceae sp.).

The unripe-people are called upon by shamans for curing illness of all kinds, both

physical and moral in nature, and for acquiring the power and knowledge contained in their perfumes (see Cipolletti 1988c). These powers and knowledge allow the living to be fertile in this earth. They enable the living to grow healthy children, to produce food and objects and to create social life (see Chapter 4). Far from being a people who strive towards the world of spirits, making it into the image of how a perfectly structured human world might be, the Airo-Pai convert the energy and knowledge given by the

is very complex. The ritual described above transforms only one of the parts of the 'soul' of the dead person. Another part remains wandering in the house where he or she lived. The Airo-Pai explained that this ghost was the "memory" of the dead person. If the dead person was a powerful shaman his human-eater spirit familiars are said to 'accompany' his ghost and 'devour' the living. For this reason the house is always abandoned after the death of a powerful shaman. The death ritual is not performed any longer and this is a cause of great anxiety for many Airo-Pai. In the past, the only category of people to be excluded from the ritual were the people who died at war. Their bodies were not buried but left to rot and to be eaten by the vultures (pupun). Interestingly, harpy eagle (Repao) is associated with both the 'mother of the perfumes' and the 'mother of the vultures' that eat rotten flesh (also see CICAME 1990a:76-83). 75

unripe-people into general fertility in the earth. To the shaman, the unripe-people appear in human shape, and as mentioned they look like beautiful teenagers. But to the unripe-people, the earthly people do not appear to have human shape. In the eyes of the unripe-people, men have the shape of oropendolas (icteridus sp.), and women have the shape of parrots (amazona sp.). The bird shape of the earthly people within the other side of reality is as true as the human shape that we perceive with our earthly eyes in daily life, for the former is the appearance that the humans have within the 'other side' of reality, while the latter is the appearance that humans have within 'this side'. In the shamanic chants, a man is called "young of the oropendola" (wnusi) and a woman is called "young of the parrot" (hue cosi). This shamanic vocabulary is known as "unripe-people's language" (/Cfla-paj cocua). In daily life, especially in the past, adolescent boys and girls were called wnusi and hue 'cosi as praise. The association in the shamanic chants between these birds and humans has been remarked upon in the ethnographies, but it has not been the focus of attention (see Langdon 1979b:72, Vickers 1989:221). It should be pointed out that the oropendolas and the parrots of the forest that we see with our daily eyes are said to be "just animals" of the forest (airoco) and they belong to 'this side' of reality. The Airo-Pai eat both birds, although they abstain during delicate moments like illness, puberty, pregnancy and after the birth of children. Both birds are also kept as pets. Parrots are women's pets and oropendolas are men's pets. b) Making the human nest

I was spontaneously told that, the unripe-people call living men the "young of the oropendola" because men and oropendolas "weave beautiful nests for bringing-up their offspring". Women are called the "young of the parrot" because women and parrots "nest in the holes in the trees made by the woodpecker". These birds are thus explicitly associated with humankind because of their nesting habits. It will be shown that underlying this association is the idea that the womb is made by both male and female aspects. 1) The male aspect of the womb

The hammock is the man's nest. In the language of the unripe-people its name is "little oropendola nest" (umuturü inafl4). Among the Airo-Pai, all hammocks are neatly woven by the men with the fibre fiucud (astrocarywn). The craft of fibre weaving is taught from father to son. The hammock is the essential piece of furniture of the Airo-Pai house. 76

About fifteen years ago, men and women slept in hammocks at night, and the first present that a man was expected to give to his new wife was a hammock where they could lie together. Nowadays, they usually sleep on the floor under a mosquito net bought from the regional traders. However, each house has at least two or three hammocks used to rock the baby and for relaxing and socializing in during the day. In the shamanic chants (see below), the expression "little oropendola nest" also refers to certain aspects of the womb. The Airo-Pai explicitly say that pregnancy can take place when "the woman has a little hammock hanging inside her belly where the man can put his milk", that is his sperm. The foetus is said to develop inside this hammock9. If there is no hammock hanging in her belly or if the hammock is tied up pregnancy cannot take place. The 'oropendola nest', that is the hammock, is thus a male uterine symbol. It is the male aspect of the womb. 2) The female aspect of the womb

At first sight, the symbolism of the parrot is more complex than that of the oropendola. Indeed, it reveals at once indigenous ideas about symbiotic relations between parrots, toucans, woodpeckers, trees and larvae. A woman is both the parrot nesting in hollowed trees and the hollow tree itself. Airo-Pai explained that the red-crested woodpeckert° makes its holes in the middle of the fork where two branches separate. They explicitly compared the branches to the two legs of a woman, and the hole in the middle to her vagina. The following account explains how the parrot was given such a nest: "Woodpecker went to speak to Toucan, and said: "please, could you show me how to obtain edible larvae? (calandrapabnarum)T'. "Airight", answered Toucan. They went together to the forest. Toucan took a branch of palm-fruit CQSd (jessenia sp.), and explained: "you swallow the fruit, you take-off its hard-skin, then you bring the seed back to your mouth and

you speed it away strongly". Ta! The round seed knocked the palm-tree trunk (Mauritiaflexuosa). Ta! "That's it!" said Toucan. The day after they went back to look at the trunk. It was already drying away. A few days later the larvae developed inside it. "Now you can eat them", said Toucan. Woodpecker thought: "Toucan has given me food. I

'Although I have no explicit statement from my informants on this point, it seems that the hammock is associated with the envelope of the placenta. 'This is "the red woodpecker of the sun" (unsë ma cone) which is associated with the person Moon (fiaflë) (see Chapter 4). The woodpecker is also a central deity among other Amazonian peoples, such as the Western-Tukanoan Mai Huna (Beffier 1988), The Carib Yecuana (Guss 1989:118) and the Eastern-Tukanoan Tukano. Among the Tukano the term for 'woodpecker' (core) also means 'vagina' (Reichel Dolmatoff 1971:214). 77

am going to make a hole so that he may nest inside it". In such a way, Toucan has now a nest and increases his offspring. But many others also put their eggs in the holes made for Toucan: the tiny parrolets, the bigger ones, and the hue'co parrot (amazona sp.) If Woodpecker had not helped, how could they nest?" (Cesario, Huajoya, 1989)

So, a woman nests inside a cavity which is hollowed between her own legs. This mythical fabrication of the vagina echoes the Aim-Pal practice of manipulation of the female genitalia which I will discuss in the next chapter. As I will show there, in this practice the maternal grand-mother takes the place of Woodpecker and operates on her grand-daughter with the aim of making her able to menstruate. The analysis of the larvae in relation to menstruation is discussed further below. 3) The male and female womb The parrot's nest is a female uterine symbol relating the womb to a wooden cavity. The female uterine imagery exhibited in the shamanic chants is in fact more complex because the womb is also said to be a pot. This complex male and female uterine imagery is exhibited in the following shamanic chant aiming to render a woman temporarily sterile. The shaman explained that this was a "curing" chant (jujuye), not a "damaging" one (dahui sëaye)1' and this form of shamanic contraception is a current practice amongst the Airo-Pai. The following chant is an example of the 'unripe-people's language'. The shaman's spontaneous exegesis of his chant is given in brackets. Without his exegesis, the chant is totally obscure to the anthropologist. The song for sterility 1 2 3 4 5

6 7

Young summer women come running-down now (they are 'heavenly' women who know how to make the rivers dry-out) Young parrots come running (this is how the 'heavenly' people call the earthly women) Also another circle (the women come running, with their arms above each other's shoulders) Doyouseeltnow? Unripe-women come running-down (they are called unripe/unripe because they are eternal teenagers) Another daughter of the parrot (the woman can not find a daughter for herself. She will have no more daughters) I watch walking straight

"In practice, the shaman should sing over a gourd containing the diluted extract yo'co (Paulliania). This extract should be drunk by the woman who required the service from the shaman without being seen by anyone. 78

Another circle comes running 8 The young parrots are sifting 9 10 They drink sitting They drink bitter leaves (it is like a medicine, and like a light. When the woman 11 drinks it, then her belly is cured. She will not have children) (A strong light which illuminates all around) 12 13 I am watching sitting straight As they drink sitting, it dries (inside the belly of the woman, there is something 14 like a saliva which is left under the sun and turns hard) 15 Drinking sitting 16 Drying (it is the belly of the woman which is being dried out when the woman drinks the medicine) Little Oropendola nest (the woman has like a little hammock in her belly where 17 the man puts his milk) Tied It up (the hammock is now closed. Nothing can enter it. It is like a pot well 18 covered with a sieve) 19 I watch standing (Liberato, Huajoya, 1989) In his exegesis, the shaman explains the meaning of words of the chants. Thus we learn that this chant describes the 'vision' of the shaman who 'sees' the scene in which the other-worldly 'young summer women' and 'unripe women' give bitter leaves to the 'young parrots' to drink, that is to the earthly women. The sterility of the womb is symbolically activated through two processes: 1) drying out the 'saliva' of the womb, and 2) tying up the 'hammock' within the womb. In line 17, the exegesis also associates the womb with a pot. The link between the pot and the womb is largely drawn in Amazonia12. The process of gestation is explicitly compared to the transformation of substances contained in a clay pot as they bubble, boil, or rot. Among the Afro-Pal, pottery is specifically a female craft. All women are potters, although some women are better artists than others. Pottery skills are passed from mother to daughter. It is surrounded by complex knowledge and codes of behaviour regarding the spirits of the river-water, the clay, and the fire. Although the parrot is not a potter-bird, the parrot has the curious habit of eating clay from the river-beds. An examination of ecological data will help us to understand the implications of the symbolism of birds. I now turn to an examination of data collected by western ecologists.

'2for instance see, Reichel-Dolmatoff (1971:62) and C. Hugh Jones (1979:117). 79

SECTION 3: ECOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS The parrot (wnazona farinosa) and the oropendola (icteridus chrysocephalus.) are

among the most abundant birds in the Airo-Pai eco-system. The parrot of the amazona

sp. is green with a red or yellow patch on the head. It is the well-known 'speaker' parrot. The oropendola is mostly black with a yellow tail and a yellow head, and it is a good singer. The oropendola's relative, the cacique (icteridus sp.) is the best imitator of other birds' songs. Both the parrot and the oropendola are highly gregarious. When they are not seen in large flocks, they are seen in couples, but never alone. Also, parrots and oropendolas compete for the position of the noisest inhabitants of the jungle. a) The parrot (amazona farinosa)

The parrot nests high-up in holes in the trunks of trees. The female lays two eggs. The male and the female sit together until the eggs hatch. They both remain quiet in the nest so as to be unnoticed by predators. The male seldom abandons the nest except to bring food for the female and young. Apart from this breeding time, parrots fly around in noisy bands, accompanied by toucans and macaws. At dawn, they leave their high perched roosting place and fly down to the river, where they spend the day. At dusk, they return to their dormitories. This behaviour is highly sensitive to seasonal variations, in particular, to flooding. During the dry season, the parrots eat mineralized soil from the river beds. Another link with clay-like substances comes from the termites which frequently invade the parrot's nest, blocking its entrance. The parrot must open a tunnel through the termitary to access its nest. Thus, frequently, the parrot's nest is completed with clay-like soil. The parrot feeds principally on seeds, like corn, and it is very destructive of corn gardens. Its beak is a powerful grinding instrument and together with its claws makes an excellent tree-climber (Kricher 1990:234, Goulding 1989). b) The oropendola (icteridus chrvsocephalus) The oropendola weaves one of the most complicated nests in the forest. A colony of

oropendolas usually settle in a high tree. The birds weave long bag-like nests hanging from the same branch and each nest is produced by a male and a female together. The male sings while the female weaves. The female lays two eggs which are left alone in the nest while the couple searches for food. But the oropendola has found an extraordinary protection for its young, the first of which is the fetid smell they secrete. 80

The oropendola form a symbiotic network with wasps, ants and trongo birds. Normally, a colony of oropendolas nests on a tree where a wasp nest is settled as well. The wasps protect the oropendola nest since they bite severely any intruder who dares to approach the tree. Usually the same tree is the roosting and feeding place of an ant colony. The ants in turn protect the wasp's nest from predator birds. They run along the tree branches biting any bird which dares to perch on them. Nevertheless, the ants have little power to persuade the trongo bird to stay away from the wasps' nest. The trongo bird makes its own nest in the wasps' nest, and feeds on wasps. The zoologists note with astonishment that the wasps do not seem to mind this invasion. The trongo bird is known for its loud 'caw caw', which is the first noise which alerts the creatures of the forest that a human has entered their territory (Santos 1979: 222-234, Goulding 1989, Kricher 1990: 232-234). Thus, the oropendola colony has access to a fantastic insect and animal militia for defending its nests. The wasps protect the Oropendolas; the ants protect the wasp and the trongo alerts all the animals of a potential danger. The butterfly larvae (unidentified) is yet another symbiotic partner. As soon as the young oropendola breaks out of the egg, two larvae develop in its body under its wings. They remain there until the bird leaves its nest. If the larvae are removed before that time, the young bird dies (Villarejo 1979:162). The oropendola feeds principally on insects, crickets, and fruit pulp. Its long beak is a powerful piercing tool. c) Summary From this brief ecological survey, it appears that parrots and oropendolas share a gregarious and noisy character. Their nesting, feeding, and defensive strategies are, however, different. Parrots roost in cavities, grind seeds, and protect their young by remaining quietly vigilant inside their nests, the male and the female together. Oropendolas weave nests, pierce through fruits and insects, and defend their nests with the help of associated animals which possess poisonous darts, such as the wasps and ants. We are now better equipped to comprehend the indigenous symbolism.

81

(r. 12) Cacique bird (icteridus sp.), (very similar to the oropendola).

(fig. 13) Oropendola nests hanging from one branch (from Santos E. 1979)

82

(fig. 14) a) Parrot (amazona sp.), b) Toucan (ramphastos sp.), c) red crested woodpecker (picidae).

(fig. 15) Oropendola making its nest (from E. Santos 1979)

83

(fig. 16) Airo-Pai man making a hammock

(

,jc

.t

.I

- .,. :'?

(fig. 17) Airo-Pai woman wearing facial painting

1"

84

I

SECTION 4: THE SYMBOLIC CONSTITUTION OF PARENTHOOD a) Oropendolas and fathers Like the oropendola, an Airo-Pai man makes all the fibre-woven objects' 3 and hts principal weapon is a piercing tool. Before the introduction of the rifle, the typical hunting and killing weapon was the spear (ul) made with bamboo. The penis is yet another spear, frequently mentioned as such in a joking manner. The penis is also a sort of breast that produces 'milk' (sperm). As is shown in Chapter 7 the spearing and feeding qualities of the penis are not thought of as necessarily contradictory. In common with several Amazonian groups, the Afro-Pal think of the hunt as both a killing and fertilizing process because the death of a prey is said to assure the reproduction of the species'4. Like the oropendola the Airo-Pai shaman is known as a good singer, and the complex shamanic repertoire elaborates on the symbiotic network of oropendolas, wasps, ants, and the trongo. In particular, ants and wasps are seen as other.woiidly dart-shooting arms used by shamans in order to kill, or to cure, other humans. The wasps are also said to lick the internal haem o rrhage of blood caused by the other-worldly dart of the sorcerers15. b) Parrots and mothers 1)The carrier To the Airo-Pai, the parrot's behaviour relates to the constant surveillance that mothers bestow on their young children. Indeed, women carry their babies everywhere, in side the womb before they are born, and when they are born inside a cloth tied across the chest. The word "parrot" (hue 'co) derives from the radical of the verb "to carry" (hue 'e), and it reads as 'carrier'. Among the Huitoto of the Putumayo River - the Afro-Pai's neighbours- women wore tight bands beneath the knee and above the ankle. The aim of the bands was to make the women walk 'like parrots', with their feet turned to the inside - pigeon-toed (Gridila 1943:35). Unfortunately I have no confirmation whether the AfroPal followed the same practice in the past, yet today Airo-Pai women do tend to have curved legs. I noticed that a woman, loaded with a full-basket on her back which was '3Also, men cut trees and build houses. In the indigenous thought, cutting-down trees is a squirrel's job. '4For comparison see Reichel-Dolmatoff (1971:67) and Descola (1986:121, 317). '5For comparison with the Yaminahua see Townsley (1988:135). 85

hung from her head by a rope, carrying a baby on her side, curves her legs even more than usual. The explanation lies in the fact that this position gives her balance when burdened with a heavy load. With this posture she can better use her toes to grip into the earth and avoid slipping in the Amazonian mud. A woman who walks like a parrot, thus, is a confident carrier. Like parrot's food, women's food par excellence are seeds, particularly corn. Women transform corn by grinding it. The corn is then boiled in water thereby making it thicken. Otherwise, it is mixed with a grated manioc mass in order to prepare bread. 2)The female reproductive cycle The parrots's sensitivity to seasons and its relation to clay-like substance are other points shared by women. In Airo-Pai thought, the vagina is a sort of clay pot which contains both liquids and solids. Moreoever, the foetus itself is like soft clay. It is moulded during gestation and cooked at delivery. Women explained that giving birth is a moment of combustion which they likened to the cooking of new pottery. Pregnant women are advised to stare at flames, so that the delivery may be as rapid as a raging fire. Finally, a bird egg (sid) is described as: "a pot well-covered with a bread-baking pan". The female parrot lays down pots/eggs in the nest, which is itself a sort of pot16. According to the Airo-Pai, the menstrual cycle reproduces the cycicality of seasons. In the women, uterine seasonal changes transform the juices contained in the womb, combining wet or dry stages with hot or cold temperatures. A woman may carry a foetus when her "belly is cold and wet". Such a representation of gestation draws upon crosssex complementarity. The father's sperm (ojé-j paiye, "like-milk") combines with the mother's "liquid-food" (ra 'ca). The idea of ra 'cc relates to a sort of purified "blood" (sie). In other contexts, ra 'cc applies to diluted vegetable extract, to meat broth which has been cleaned of all blood before cooking, and to rain-water. According to the AiroPai, a woman's ra 'cc is a nutritious liquid that the foetus sucks from an internal breast in the womb. In the womb, the foetus grows progressively as it is 'fed' with both sperm and uterine juices. The child's sex depends on the amount of nutritious liquids contributed

16•

Pots are cooked in a big bon-fire. The small pots are put inside bigger ones. The

latter stand on pieces of old pottery. The pots are surrounded with fire wood forming a conical hut, and burned. Gow P. suggests that underlying Amazonian pottery is the idea of auto-reproduction according to which old pots contain and produce new pots (personal communication). The Airo-Pai uterine symbolism of the pot is consistent with this hypothesis. 86

by the father and by the mother. According to such reasoning, if the father's contribution surpasses the mother's, the child is a boy; and otherwise it would be a girl. One word must be said about indigenous understandings of blood. Blood is not food for the body, but a sort of burning-water responsible for the body heat. Therefore, when a woman menstruates she is 'hot'. Equally, the 'combustion' of birth relates to the bleeding uterus. In my opinion, the best comparison to the indigenous idea of blood, and especially menstrual blood, would be volcanic lava'7. Several examples in the Amazonia literature indicates that blood, especially menstrual blood, is associated with both fire and water's. c) Nutritious larvae: cross-sex fertility There is one female craft unknown to the parrot. This is the art of cotton-weaving. Among the Airo-Pai cotton-weaving is restricted to the production of bracelets worn by men on each wrist and bands used top the newborn babies. Although this custom is being abandoned, women spin and weave cotton during their menstrual confinement. In indigenous symbolism, the cotton-weaver woman is a butterfly-larvae (quenqué). The process of cotton-weaving is explicitly compared to a chrysalis surrounding itself with silk so as to be transformed into a butterfly. The days of menstruation are moments of sorrow for a woman, somehow similar to death because her menstrual odours indicate that she is rotting. When the menses stop, women say that they "rejoice" (sihuaye), because they are "renewed" (huajeye). In common with several Amazonian peoples, the Airo-Pai associate menstruation with an immortality that is achieved through an internal change of skin (see Hugh-Jones S. 197Y: 183). The passage from larvae to butterfly is yet another image of life-renewal. It is thus inadequate to reduce the Airo-Pai understanding of menstruation to a "pollution model" (see Buckley 1988:38). The edible larvae (calandra palmarwn) mentioned in the myth of the origin of the parrot's nest grow in rotten Palm-tree trunks (mauririaflexuosa). They are associated, because of this, with putrid wood. Nevertheless, they are relished since they are very nutritious and have a high fat content. Larvae and small fish are considered to be

'7There are several volcanoes in the neighbouring Ecuadorian Andes. '8For comparison with the Barasana see Hugh-Jones S. (197Y: 180). 87

adequate food for people in dangerous states and they are a.lso given to pregnant women'9. In indigenous thought, larvae are associated with a nutritious rottenness, with the kind of putrid material from which new life is generated. According to my informants, this is a white rotteness. It is "pure foam" (sin). Such is the rottenness of the fertile womb when it is 'cold and wet'. Uterine juices (ra'ca), sperm, mother's milk, and larvae are substances containing the fertility of foam. Finally, a third type of larvae is that which grows under the wings of the young oropendolas. Unfortunately, I recorded no indigenous statement on this topic, but given the structure of indigenous symbolism, it is reasonable to connect the cotton bracelets worn by men on each wrist with the larvae of the oropendola. If we consider all the different types of larvae discussed in this paper, there emerges the following overall panorama. As a woman menstruates and renews her body, she transforms herself symbolically into a chrysalis and produces cotton bracelets to be worn by her husband. The bracelets convey to her husband her own capabilities for regeneration and fertility, which he then returns back to her womb in the form of sperm. From the union of his sperm and her uterine-juices, new human life is created. It becomes clear that the 'foam' of cotton and larvae unite men and women within a common cocoon in which women participate in the production of men, and vice-versa. Such is, I suggest, the indigenous understanding of cross-sexual fertility on 'this earth'. d) Wife/mother and husband/father The parrot and the oropendola are not the only Airo-Pai symbols of femininity and masculinity, for indigenous symbolism is extremely rich with sexual references 20. From 19For comparison with the Tukano see Reichel-Dolmatoff (1971: 146). 20For instance the sloth is endowed with both male and female features. The conclusions raised by Levi-Strauss (1988) in his analysis of the sloth are relevant in this case. In the Airo-Pai mythology, the sloth (uhu) is the primal owner of fire and clay. The younger of the Pleiade brothers (usehuë-pafj stole her 'fire stick' (o,n: summer, soto:clay, ro:stick) by making her blind. Since then, the Pleiades have control over the seasonal cycle (see Ortiz Rescanière 1975 and Vickers 1989). The sloth relates to the parrot as is indicated by its regional nickname: 'light parrolet' (Perico Iigero)(Villarejo 1979). Like the parrot the sloth is an exellent tree climber but the former is agile and adorable while the latter is slow and despicable. The sloth is also a male hammock hanging lazy from a branch. The digestive and defecating habits of sloths are associated with female pregnancy, the pain and 'slothfulness' women experience in giving birth. 88

the analysis above, it appears that the parrot refers to the woman as wifemother and the oropendola refers to the man as husband-father. Husband-father Oropendola (ktedtus chiysocephalus)

Womb: woven nest (hammock) hanging from a branch Feeding tool: piercing tool (spear) Protection: complex defense-attack Wife-mother Parrot (amazonafannosa) Womb: solid cavity (hollowed trunk and clay pot) Feeding tool: grinding tool (wheel mill) Protection: secrecy and surveyance Interestingly, men do the job of both the male and the female oropendola. The Airo-Pai explained that the male-bird sings "giving directions" (cuanefie), while the female weaves. Among the humans, men weave and chant which indicates that, in the eyes of the unripe-people a man is an androgynous oropendola. As such, he is seen to reproduce baby-oropendolas by himself in the woven womb, in the hammock, that he makes21. Equally, from the point of view of the unripe-people a woman is seen as an androgynous parrot, and she is able to reproduce baby-parrots by herself in the cavity/pot she carries inside her body. Cross-sex parenting emerges from the very symbols which sustain single-sex reproduction. This is shown in the combination of male and female foamy substances that are required to make the foetus' body. The single-sex reproduction which is seen by the unripe-people is not opposed to the cross-sexual reproduction that takes place between the living. On the contrary, the former reinforces the latter. By stressing single-sex reproduction from the point of view of the unripe-people it is indicated that both man and woman have symmetrical responsibilities in the process of reproduction. In other words, in this world children are born because both father and mother respectively carry out their appropriate tasks. To the Airo-Pai, fatherhood entails much more than merely fertilizing a woman. Fatherhood is a full-time job and it is rooted in social fatherhood. When a man weaves a hammock, brings meat back home and protects his family with his shamanic knowledge he is symbolically taking part in the production of his children. Conversely, a man who 21 Although my informants did not mention it explicitly, it is probable that the male womb - the hammock/oropendola nest - relates to the scrotum, and the testicles to the two eggs laid by the female oropendola bird. 89

fails to fulfil his duties as a husband has no right over the children born by his wife, or his lovers. Motherhood too is a full-time job. The fact that the womb is located inside a woman's body does not imply the immediacy of her involvment in maternity. In indigenous thought, the child is the product of the effort and dedication of both parents. Women's reproduction is as much a 'social act' as is the case with men's reproduction. Sexuality is not given 'naturally' outside the fact of human social agency. As we have seen here, the sexual organs are physically manipulated and symbolically manufactured by the enactment of gendered livelihood. Crafting, producing food and procreation are intimately linked because they are conceived to be equally necessary for the growth of children. It should be pointed out that the Airo-Pai explicitly say that the ideal number of children is three. Therefore, they are not interested in having many children, but rather they are preoccupied with the raising of a few children with care. The crafting work of a man and a woman are symbolic means of forming the male and the female womb. The food produced by a man and a woman symbolically constitutes the nutritious foamy liquids contributed by both the father (sperm) and the mother (uterine juices). Women protect their children by carrying them. Men protect their children with their other-worldly knowledge. e) Afro-Pal cosmos The conclusions reached here enable us to understand the significance of the Airo-Pai cosmos described at the beginning of this chapter. The silk-cotton tree guarded by the parrot indicates that the tree of the universe is a fertile womb. This is a notion found among other Amazonian groups, for instance among the eastern-Tukanoan speaking peoples of the Vaupes (see C. Hugh-Jones 1979). The silk-cotton tree is the highest tree of the forest. It is normally hollow and rotten inside (Villarejo 1979:143). In addition, its white silk-cotton fruit connects it to the fertility of foam. The two branches of the tree relate to the open legs of a woman. The fork is also a symbol of fertility because it is the point where two branches are born from one. The forkR (sara/usa) is a very

22This point will be analyzed in Chapter 5 when I will look at the marital relationship. The debate on the nature/culture dichotomy in the study of gender has been revised by Moore (1988:13-41); also see Strathern (1988:318) on Melanesia, and Overing (1986) on Amazonia. 90

important concept for the Afro-Pal, for instance the fork where the the forest paths or the rivers separate. In a tree trunk, the fork is the part where branches are born, and from these branches things can be hung. Thus, at the fork operates the transition between two forms of spatial order: the space inside the trunk where things are contained, and the space between the branches from which things can be hung. As we have seen, the act of containing in a solid cavity is associated with women's agency and the act of hanging from a branch is related to men's agency. According to my informants, the blind cotton-sloth is 'the chief of all 'monsters' (huati)'. From the other branch hangs a wasp nest - the dart-shooting friends of the

shamans. The trongo eating the wasps is 'the chief of all the 'beings of the forest'. In the bottom part, the earth cooks and floats at the same time. Thus the water surrounding the earth is a sort of burning-water which relates it to menstrual blood. SECTION 5: THE SOCIAL CONTENT OF METAPHOR

In analysing "the social nature of cosmological metaphors", I have concentrated on the nesting habits of birds. This was the point stressed by my informants when discussing gender and sexual symbolism. In other contexts, different aspects of bird's physiology and habits could be emphasised. For instance, the yellow colour of the oropendola's feathers is a central element of the shamanic paraphernalia. The examination of these birds' nesting habits in light of the indigenous exegesis stresses at once the association between the parrot and the mother-wife aspect of a woman, and the connection between the oropendola and the father-husband traits of a man. An important implication deriving from this symbolism regards the moral content of metaphors. Clearly, weaver-bird and weaver-man differ in the sense that a man might or might not decide to weave a hammock. Similarly, a woman might or might not decide to carry a child. Indeed, contraception, abortion, and infanticide are currently practised by the Airo-Pai women when they consider it inappropriate or undesirable to become mothers. Like many other Amazonian peoples, the Afro-Pal think of social relationships in terms of a principle of personal autonomy. As I will show in the next chapter, the personal autonomy of adults is founded on the knowledge, the practical skills and the affective ties built up during the years of upbringing. Thus, the importance of moral education which is imparted directly by giving "advice" (yëhuoye) or indirectly through 'cosmological metaphors'. Acccording to Seegers, da Matta, and Viveiros de Castro (1979), terms such 91

as 'fluid' and 'open to individual manipulation' frequently used to describe Lowland Amerindian social organization are incorrect because they fail to capture the indigenous symbolic idioms. These authors claim that Amazonian societies are oriented toward the production of the individual and its body, rather than to the definition of groups. This argument is useful in understanding the Airo-Pai metaphors of birds. As we have seen, these metaphors also stress the symbolic construction of fertile gendered bodies. The parrot and the oropendola are moral standards of parenting and conjugality which contribute to the production of autonomous and fertile men and women. Furthermore, these cosmological images define the living by contrasting them to the dead. It is remarkable that the living men and women appear to the eyes of the unripe-people as two different species of reproducing birds. The unripe-people - as their name indicates - never ripen and thus, they never rot and they are unable to reproduce. They are somehow an inverted image of the earthly - ripening - people. They are the eternal but infertile side of culture which bestows its protection and power to 'this side' in order to achieve the work of reproduction. On 'this earth'social life is about making babies, and making them grow. When the earthly people look at the 'heavens', they see eternal youth, easiness of existence, sameness and infertility. When the unripe-people look at the earth, they see organic flux, aging and effort but they do not see cross-sexual procreation because in their eyes men and women reproduce separately and fihiation follows same-sex lines. But this is the point of view of the dead which is different from but not opposed to the one of the living. For the living, marriage and affinity from the indigenous point of view are the propellers of fertility and rejuvenation. The mixing of different and complementary genders is the pivot of this process of reproduction. In Amazonia we see a theory of parenthood and fertility very different from the modern European ideas of biological conception and parturition. As Goldman (1963:93) has remarked for the Cubeo, in Amazonia we find a theory of growth and transformation. According to the Airo-Pai, children are not conceived at one time, but rather they are made to grow by the sustained effort of both parents who house, feed and protect them. The work of raising and gendering children is carried out until they are seen to reach adulthood when they can in turn establish new ties of affinity and grow their own children. As I will show in the next chapter, gender is not thought to be inborn and children are actively transformed into gendered beings before and during the relationship of marriage.

92

CHAPTER 4: PERSONHOOD. SOCIALIZATION AND GENDERING The first part of this chapter is concerned with Airo-Pai conceptions of the person and practices of the socialization of young people of both genders. In section 1, I introduce Airo-Pai ideas of 'thought', 'giving advice', 'work' and 'tranquillity' which lay down the foundations of Airo-Pai personhood for both men and women. I examine these notions from the perspective of how young children acquire these elements of personhood within the parent-child relationship. I then turn in section 2 to an analysis of the concept of 'raising' in the representation of social relationships which is understood to entail the 'creation' of individuals. In the second part of this chapter, I concentrate on the gendering processes and the acquisition of gender specific capabilities of production, consumption and reproduction. I examine female puberty rites in section 3 and male puberty shamanistic rites in section 4. In the last section 5, I describe the link between female menstrual blood and the male practice of shamanism and the repercussions of this tie in the ordering of daily-life in the settlement. Part 1: ThE RAISiNG OF CHILDREN SECTION 1: BASIC NOTIONS OF PERSONHOOD a) Upbringing and personhood For the Airo-Pai, the concept of personhood is intimately linked to the notion of upbringing. On the one hand, it is their understanding that the quality of one's upbringing has a quasi-deterministic impact on the person with regard to both the physical and moral aspects of living. This is manifested in Airo-Pai rhetoric, for instance a "good" (deoco) person is described as someone who has had a good "upbringing" (al deoye), whereas a "bad" (goaco) person is said to have been brought up without care. The indigenous expression for 'raising' and 'bringing up' reads literally as: 'transforming (deoye)' into old/big (al)'. The term deoye also means 'to become good, correct, and/or beautiful'. Hence, for the Airo-Pai, the raising of children entails a difficult process of

'The term deoye is used in the context of shamanism. For instance, the other-worldly transformation of the shaman into a jaguar is expressed as yai deoye ("transforming into jaguar"). 93

transformation with the aim of creating a good adult person. On the other hand, the practice of raising children defines adulthood in contradistinction to childhood and adolescence. An adult person is fundamentally seen as someone who is responsible for growing and 1ooking after (iflcaiye) children or grandchildren, while young people are described as those who are being raised in order to

become adults in their turn. Gow (1991:121) argues for the Piro of the Bajo Urubamba

that the raising of children is the core idiom of kinship ties and a matter of great interest in itself. As will be shown, the same argument applies to the Airo-Pai for whom the community is the setting where children can be born and grow up. Although it is an onerous task, the raising of children is not regarded as a burden. Rather, children are viewed as an inexhaustible source of amusement for the grown-ups who laugh whole-heartily at their ideas and adventures, sometimes

to

the dismay of the

astonished child. On a daily basis, mothers spend more time with their young children because fathers leave for the forest, but when they are at home, fathers are attentive and playful with both their girl and boy children. Although children are principally taken care of by their own parents, the common concern and affection for the children creates relationships between adults which cross-cut household boundaries. It should be pointed out that in the Airo-Pai settlement all the adults are related as kin or as affines, and therefore their children are related as kin to everybody in the settlement. Parents may get involved in the rare disputes that erupt between the children, but generally the presence of children is fundamental

to

the enjoyment of and the communication between the adults.

b The notion of thought

An informant explained about his baby grand-son: "He does not know how to think yet. He touches every thing he sees, and then throws it away without consideration for the person to whom it belongs. He goes for whatever his eyes perceive , just in vain". Then, extending his hand at the level of his waist, he said: "when my grand-son reaches this size, like my other grand-daughter, then he will know how to think a little". The ideas expressed here are shared by both Airo-Pai men and women. Babies are not born with the capability 'for thinking' although they possess basic senses and motor capacities (for example, they are considered to be able to see and move, although very weakly). The fundamental problem with infants is that they act "in vain", as the Airo-Pal put it. Adults feel pity for babies because they ramble, unable to orient their behaviour towards a worthy goal. The Airo-Pai stress that a child must be "taught how to think", so that 94

eventually he or she may be able 'to think' by himself or herself1. The notion of cuasaye which the Airo-Pai translate as "to think" (in spanish pensai) reads literally as: 'purposeful (cua3-) listening to (-ataye)'. Therefore, the Airo-Pai concept of 'thought' is directly tied to memory and to those moral values defining what is "purposeful" and good (cua-) as opposed to the "purposeless" and bad (goa-). The capabilities for personal 'thinking' derive from interpersonal relationships because personal 'thought' is based upon the idea of "listening

to"

(atsaye) other people,

especially those older than self. However, the notion of "listening to" (atsaye) is not restricted to the auditive sense. 'Listening' entails not just hearing but 'paying attention', 'respecting' and also 'loving'; it is a social concept involving indigenous ideas of affection and moral authority. This point is explored below in relation to the notion of "giving advice" (yehuoye) that is the counterpart to the idea of 'listening'. The indigenous concept of 'thought' excludes the possibility of mental solipsism. The Airo-Pai 'thinking' person could never be an isolated mind in the style of some idealist philosophical traditions or futuristic fictions in the contemporary Western world. Rather, the Airo-Pai 'thinking' and 'purposeful' person is eminently social and defined by the capacity to 'pay attention', to 'love' and to give a worthy will to his actions. 'To think' is a social action and it enables the person to engage in productive social relationships: to produce and enjoy food, things and children. In addition, the 'thinking' person is the mediator between the past (in the words listened

to

from older people) and

the present, and as such he or she becomes an effective agent of social continuity in AiroPal society.

2The importarneof the notion of 'thought' for Amazonian peoples has been raised out by Overing . in her analysis of Piaroa notions of self and the domestication of the forces of culture held by the gods (1982, 1988b). She points out, Special teaching ceremonies and day-to-day interaction with the others "awake" the Piaroa person to the "life of senses" and the "life of thoughts". A knowledgeable man or woman possess in himself or herself the skills to live socially in an autonomous way, to discern moral matters and carry out production and reproduction in the companionship of community members and spouse. Similarly, small children have no "life of thoughts". 3To my knowledge, to this date there is no linguistic study of the prefixe 'cua-'. Semantic comparison and indigenous exegesis of their vocabulary show that 'cua-' indicates that the action is directed towards a worthy aim. For example: the term 'nefle':'to make' and the term 'cuanefle':'to direct the work'; coye:'to boil' and cuacoye: 'to prepare a boiled recipe'. The prefixe 'cua-', I propose, is the opposite of the prefixe 'goa-' which signifies the ideas of 'without purpose' and 'bad'(Johnson & Wheeler 1987:113). 95

In Airo-Pai ontology, 'thought' is the capability which differentiates "people" (paz) from other beings, such as "monsters" (huati4) and beings which are "just animals" (airoco). People are said to have ajoyd that is the personal centre of their 'thoughts'. The joyó possessed by the person has multiple aspects which evolve as the person grows older and dies. For instance, an aspect of the joyô resides in the eyes of the person and it is this that allows perception. But normally the idea of joyo refers to the incorporeal centre of 'thought' which is said to be situated in the chest. Airo-Pai translate the term joyo as 'heart' (coraz6n and sometimes 'soul' (alma), although it differs from the physical heart. New-born babies are said to have very little joyô, and it is for this reason that they are seen to be helpless, needing to be looked after and to be made to grow. The link between personal names (see Chapter 1) and 'soul' is not clear. Children are given a name from the unripe-people when they begin to crawl. Although this name has an impact on the personality of the person, it does not determine it. What defines the individual character is his or her own 'thinking' capabilities which are acquired during childhood and adolescence. Airo-Pai names seem to be more important in the after-life than in this life (see M cCallum (1989: 103-11) for a similar discussion on Cashinahua names). c Learning by Imitation and by listening to 'advices' As long as a young child is considered unable to understand he or she is allowed to move around freely under the protective eye of his mother or elder sister. As the child reaches two to three years of age he or she is progressively exhorted to imitate its parents, siblings and grand-parents, especially its same-sex parent. Watching and listening are stressed as the basis for imitation. Watching is particularly important for the acquisition of handicraft skills and any occasion becomes good for such informal and playful teaching. Adults are always aware that children imitate other people's behaviour, and for this reason they never shout at children because they understand that if they did so the child would also become bad-tempered (also see Vickers 1989). When a child reaches seven years of age his or her education becomes more formal and gender specific. Fathers teach their sons and mothers teach their daughters, because

4The notion of huari is complex. Normally, it refers to other-worldly human-eater beings with deformed bodies (hairy, two headed, with transparent skin which shows the beating heart, etc). Other forms of huari axe not regarded negatively, such as the huati of hallucinogenic visions (toya huati). Like the Bororo bope, the Airo-Pai huati are associated with organical flux, reproduction and death. 96

as the Airo-Pai often say: "women know of womanly affairs, and men know of manly affairs". Airo-Pai parents give formal instruction to their children by giving them advice (yehuoye'). The practice of giving advice is seen as having four crucial objectives. First,

it is said to teach the children "how to think" in an autonomous way. In the indigenous view, such advice is housed in the "soul" (joyó) of the young person and constitutes the solid bedrock upon which he or she may autonomously make correct decisions in life. Second, the advice is a lesson in proper speech because it is given through polite linguistic formulas. Third, the content of the advice is a lesson in proper conduct. Fourth, the giving of advice is said to be a manifestation of parental "love" (oiye) and to instill in the youngsters love and gratitude for their parents. These four aspects of giving advice

are intrinsically linked, for the Airo-Pai consider that a person who knows "how to think" is loving and respectful of elders, speaks in a polite manner and behaves morally as an autonomous person. Each piece of advice has a characteristic linguistic form. Generally, advisory sessions begin by a question of this type: "How do you think?" (Maj m' cuatsaqu&?). The parent, then instructs the child about the moral use of work and objects. The speech ends in a typical formula, such as: "This is what I heard from my grand-parents, if you live in this way you will live well". On a daily basis, parents give advice to their children

before dawn, in the privacy of the hearth. Advice is also given during the teaching ceremonies of puberty and marriage, which I will analyze in section 3 and 4 of this chapter and in the next chapter. Giving and listening to 'advice' are also important practices between adult people. For instance, giving advice to the members of the community is one of the roles of the headman and other knowledgeable men 6. By advising his followers, the headman takes a parental position and, as the Airo-Pai say, he speaks 'like a father' to his community. Clastres (1977) argues that in Amerindian societies, it is the leader's duty to give 'empty speeches' to which the followers are not expected to listen. Santos Granero (1991:302) refutes this argument for the Amuesha (also see MacCallum (1990:419) for the Cashinahua). He argues that the headman does not base his power on coercion but nevertheless his speech is a powerful means of

5The term yehuoye (to give advice) and yeiye (to whistle like a bird) are related. The Airo-Pal explained that birds give 'advice' to each other by whistling. 'To my knowledge, women rarely give 'advice' to the whole community as men do but they may give 'advice' to a smaller group of women. 97

teaching and persuading his followers for it 'carries the weight of an order without appearing as such, for it is grounded in moral considerations shared by both leaders and followers' (1991:302). This argument also applies to the Airo-Pai case. Currently, the Airo-Pai do not hold formal community advisory sessions, but rather any occasion is good for the headman to exhort the other members of the community to 'think well" and 'live well'. So important is the idea of giving advice to Airo-Pai that it is extended to all kinds of positive guidance for the person, young people and adults. For instance, hygiene, discipline, and natural substances are said to 'give advice' to the person because they are regarded as a means of instilling in the person the willingness and the energy to "live well'. The Airo-Pai bathe frequently, comb their hair, wear perfumed plants (mafi4), paint with bixa (pQsá) and genipa (hue 'e) in order to heighten morale and to be able to 'rejoice' (sihuaye). In addition, they drink the diluted extract of yo 'Co (paulliania) (also see Steward 1948a:545) several times a day. 'It is our coffee', they say. "It drives idleness away, it gives us strength and the desire to work'. From age five, children are given to drink small doses of yo 'co, if they desire it. Younger children, however, should not drink because they are considered lacking the 'thoughts' required to orient the energy given by the emetic. The effect would be negative and the young child would become restless7 . At the same time, Airo-Pai adults dislike the feeling of lethargy. If a mouthful of yo'co does not shake them up, then they resort to nettles (sutsi, urtica sp.). They rub their skin until it is covered with red spots. Nefties are also used to "cure" a child who has repeated temper tantrums. Another way of obtaining children's obedience is to threaten them with the visit of a monster. Children are never hit, and their bad-temper, if recurrent, is considered to be an illness which should be cured with a combination of advising, needles, and shamanism.

'People -especially babies- should not touch the yo 'CO of another person without asking permission first. A man explained: 'Don't you see that it is just a liana, hanging down in the air, moving as the wind blows?". The wrong-user would become unsettled like the living vine in the forest. Thus, the negative restlessness of the vine would overcome its positive effect. The indigenous use of plants always relates to a code of interpersonal behaviour. 98

d) The permeability of the person and conceptions of illness The Airo-Pai understand that individuals are not strictly bounded entities, but rather are permeable to the attributes of the other individual humans, animals, and other beings of their cosmology with whom they come in contact. The concept of "to stick onto" (seaye)8 is at the core of their understanding of the permeability of the person and of the associated concept of illness. This refers to the metonymic reproduction of the attributes held by one individual and passed on to the other, and it can be seen as a form of contamination, although it is not always perceived to be negative. In Spanish the Airo-Pai use the expression apegar and also the Ouichua term cutipar. This term is used throughout Peruvian Amazonia and it means 'to stick onto', 'to avenge' and 'to give in return'. Both physical and moral characteristics may be passed on to the individual and

different forms of contamination are seen to take place through a variety of channels, close physical contact, eye vision, smell, food, drink and sorcery. Close physical contact and food are important means of contamination by both (negative or positive) physical and moral attributes. Therefore, if one eats the food prepared by or touched by another person one may be contaminated by his or her characteristics, especially when eating food from the same plate9. This understanding of contamination has a positive side since through living in close physical contact and eating the same food individuals make themselves 'similar' to each other and safely familiar. This is not only so because they feed their bodies with the same substances, but because they contaminate each other with their attributes in the act of eating the food which others have prepared and touched. However, contamination may become a thread when associated to undesirable characteristics. For instance, if one lives with a stingy person one may become stingy as well or by living with a person who has body aches one may also begin to feel such pain. The Airo-Pai are constantly aware that one may be contaminated by the attributes of other individuals and beings, an attitude that has a direct impact on their behaviour, and as I will show, in particular on the organization of consumption (see section 5, and Chapter 6 & 7).

'Also see Langdon (1974) for a detailed description of ideas and practices of illness among the Western-Tukanoan speaking Siona. For comparison on the notion of cutipa see Gow (1991:236-37). 9The idea that domestic intimacy leeds to the transference of physical and moral essence is common to many other Amazonian peoples. See for instance, Overing (1986) for the Piaroa, Crocker (1985) for the Bororo and da Matta (1979) for the Apinayé. 99

The sorcery of shamans and other-worldly beings of their cosmology is another means of contamination that is often associated with illness and death. Like most Amazonian peoples, the Airo-Pai understand that death is not a 'natural' fact but rather is caused by the malevolent action of shamans, and because of this the relatives of the dead person normally feel obliged to avenge his or her death through sorcery or physical violence. By contrast, curable illness is usually attributed to some minor sort of contamination and does not entail such revenge. The Airo-Pai explain that sorcery creates illness in the form of 'saliva' or 'smoke' that sticks to the body of the afificted person. This is expressed by the notion of dahuë'° sëaye ('to stick onto illness"). For instance, certain forms of skin disease are known as 'snake contamination' (aM seaye) because the afificted skin looks like the skin of a snake and is seen to be caused by the sorcery of the other-worldly 'master of the snakes' (aM ejao). Vision and smell are other means through which sorcery may operate. For instance, if one (especially young children) sees a group of vultures one may be contaminated with their putrid smell and feel nausea. Contamination, however, is not always perceived as illness but rather as a normal state. For instance, infants are said to be contaminated by the spider monkey (tanque seaye) because they touch everything they see and then throw it away like the spider monkey is said to do. e Conceptions of work and ownership of the products of work As mentioned, the Airo-Pai notion of 'thought' has direct practical implications since a person who 'knows how to think' also knows how to produce food and objects. The training of young children for becoming productive individuals is thus an integral part of the process of acquisition of their own capabilities for 'thinking'. From a very young age children are encouraged to 'help' and 'serve' their parents, as the Airo-Pai say (see below), but they are not burdened with heavy tasks. They carry water for the house, take messages to the other houses, and are generally obedient. Girls, in particular, entertain and 'look after' their younger siblings. They gather in packs and prepare their own vegetable meals which they consume together. Boys also group to catch birds and fish which they grill and eat. But the division of sexes is not strict. During school hours boys and girls remain together. Then, in the afternoon they take long and joyful baths in mixed

'°Fhe idea of dahuë is a very complex one and it refers to the power of sorcery in general. Linguistically, the term dahuë derives from the radical of the verb 'to bring' (da-). 100

groups. Gradually, children's games become significant to the maintenance of their house and from ten years old onwards, both genders are important to the production process. Youngsters are expected to give the food which they have produced to their mother, but this does not mean that the children's contribution is absorbed anonymously into household production. Rather, when a youngster is able

to

take responsibilities for the

production of food and other items, he or she is attributed the authorship of the products of work and has the right to dispose of them (see Chapter 6). As a prelude to the discussion of production, distribution and consumption in the following chapters, I will now examine conceptions of work and possession of objects in relation to notions of personhood. Like many other Amazonian peoples, the Airo-Pai subscribe to what may be called a 'labour theory of personal ownership' according to which the maker owns the products of his or her work". The Airo-Pai express the idea of 'working' in two ways: 1)

cuaniai)a nefle: 'to

make (nefle) purposeful (cua-) items (mafia)' (like the

manufacture of a piece of pottery, a hammock, or a house). Manufactured objects or "purposeful items" (cuwnafla) are closely associated with their maker because they are seen to contain his or her purposeful thought and agency for production. The personal ownership of objects is expressed as inn senco ("the one who holds"). 2) Yooye: 'to be active and make a physical effort' (like the effort involved in cutting

down trees, grating manioc tubers, or carrying things in a basket). This notion also connotes the idea of physical suffering and exhaustion. As mentioned, objects belong to their maker. If he or she gives them away, then they belong to whom they are given. Personal possessions, either made, received or bought from a river trader (Western goods), are identified with their owners. When the person dies they must be destroyed or buried together with the dead body. Theft is a very severe offence even among close kin. However, one can rightly expect and ask to be given food and objects from one's close kin12. Whether this will be a 'gift' (insi) without

"For comparison see Overing (1988b, 1992a) on the Piaroa and McCallum (1989:200-204) on the Cashinahua. '2The following is an example of how one can demand things from one's kin. A young Airo-Pai returned for the first time from Ecuador where he had been living for 10 years in order to visit his father in Peru. When he was about to return, he insisted that his father give him his only radio. His father did, although he had worked very hard to buy it and knew that it was unlikely he could ever buy a new one again. 101

expectation of return or an 'exchange' (seaM insi: return gift) depends on the relationship and the context of the negotiation between the transactors. As I wili show in Chapters 6 & 7, between co-residents there is a mutual bestowal of assistance and food. If the labour involved in the manufacture of a product comes from several people, the product only belongs to the person who organizes the work and takes responsibility for it, while the others are said to "help" him or her. The term cQcaiye (that the Afro-Pal translate in Spanish as "to help" (ayudar)) literally reads as: 'to accompany (to double) (cQ-) for the benefit of the other (-cal-)' (Johnson & Wheeler 1987:92). The term necaiye (or "to serve", servir) literally reads as; 'to do something for the benefit of the other person'. Thus, the main difference between 'helping' and 'serving' is that the former entails working side by side and the latter does not. But, in both cases, the product belongs to the person who is being 'helped' or 'served' and organizes the work. As mentioned, young children axe said to "help" and "serve" their parents, hence they do not own the things that they contribute in makin But when older children are able to take responsibility for their own work, they also own the products of their work and have the right to dispose of them. To conclude this section, It should be said that in spite of the stress that they put upon the value of hard work, the Airo-Pai are not a stoical people. They continuously complain about how much they 'suffer' in the gardens, in the forest and when working at home. Far from being insensitive to the pains involved in making a living, they are extremely aware of them, and because of this they try to render their work as pleasant and light as possible. This is the explicit reason given for taking emetics, bathing and painting themselves on a daily basis. Also, whenever it is possible they make work a social affair, they keep company with one another (particularly same-sex mates) and work side by side each doing his or her own work or 'helping' each other. For the major enterprises (like opening a new garden or building a house) they organize communal working-parties which are made ae able through profuse quantities of manioc beer. 1) Values for the community 1)Erectness of posture As we have seen, the indigenous education emphasizes the values of proper speech,

102

personal discernment, working, generosity and a balance between energy and stillness'3. In fact, the notion of stillness is seen to encompass the others. An Afro-Pal explained: "a good person is like a cooking pot sitting straight on its bottom, one that does not swing like a liana in the wind". By contrast, lack of perseverance and purpose are the most deplored faults of character. The Afro-Pal link erectness of posture with the achievement of the state of tranquillity and purposefulness. In daily discourse, they make salient use of expressions signifying the internal attitude of stillness. For instance "necaye" (to stand-up straight), "nuMe" (to lay-down straight) and "duye" (to sit-down straight). More than the actions of standing, lying and sitting, the erectness of posture embodies the personal disposition to be productive and fostering socially tranquil relationships between co-residents. 1)Craziness In Airo-Pai discourse, the contrary of a calm person is a "crazy" (sëomean) person, for such a character "does not know how to think", never listens to others and ignores the procedures for proper speech. Without the guidance of advisory sessions, the 'crazy person' will lack perseverance and end up being purposeless. Overcome by boredom and anger he or she will neglect work and irritate parents, spouse, children, and neighbours. It should be said that the Airo-Pai are not morally intransigent people because they believe that all persons are fallible. Often, they are prepared to endure much that is wrong from their kin and neighbours. Moreover, they think of themselves as people who are easily inclined to anger and murderous action. For this reason, maintaining the balance between discontent and contentment is a salient preoccupation of each adult person. 2)Anger The indigenous treatment of anger is ambivalent because the capacities to feel and express anger are seen as having both negative and positive force. On the one hand, in the indigenous view, "anger" (peifle) is a dangerous feeling to arouse because it causes people to fight and murder. They say that an angered person "wants to kill" and this makes the others feel a complex feeling of "fear-shame" (cadaye). They tend to leave the angered person alone in the hope that he or she would become calmer. The angered '3Airo-Pai conceptions of desirable and undesirable moral qualities are similar to those held by most Amazonian peoples. The most negative failings of character are: lying, anger, and stinginess. For comparison see Thomas (1982: 161) on the Pemon, Overing (1982, 1988b) on the Piaroa, Johnson (1978:293) on the Machiguenga. 103

person also fears his or her own anger. The best solution, it was explained, when angered is to take a long walk in the forest to drive the anger away. On the other hand, the capability for feeling and expressing anger is seen as a personal power. Children of both sexes are taught to recognize and express this feeling. For instance, men and women love teasing babies in a kindly way. They grasp one of their small wrists and move it in the air saying in a baby-voice: "I am angry, I am angry (goapëiM). The astonished baby is then immediately hugged. Such teasing always causes

great amusement among the people present. Older children are not teased in this way, but their parents approve when they show a strong character. Nevertheless, children are taught not to be overcome by negativity, and to differentiate between justified and unjustified dissatisfaction and master their emotions. Frequently, parents laugh at the bad temper of their children turning their discontent into laughter as well. The conditions of constant interaction within the settlement are conducive to a heightened awareness of others' moods and needs and of the necessity of adapting oneself to them. Like many other Amazonian groups, the Airo-Pai possess no 'jural' means of solving interpersonal problems'4 and the open confrontation between spouses and neighbours is likely to result in separation and the fission of the community. As the AiroPal put it: people who are angered at one another can not bear to live together. It is their understanding that between kin, problems should be given a solution through 'conversation'. If one refuses to talk, then the offended's outrage is justified and he or she may well, it is thought, take violent action against the offender. The most serious situations are those of revenge after the death of a close relative. As I have explained, death is seen to be caused by the malevolent action of a shaman. When a person dies, his or her close relatives usually express their bereavement in terms of 'anger' and seek to know the identity of the guilty sorcerer through several means which include shamanic rituals (see Vickers 1989:239). Generally (but not always) the alleged sorcerer belongs to another community and revenge is carried out through sorcery, although this may also be conducive to physical violence. The 'anger' of the bereaved may also be turned against him or herself and, hence, suicide is a fairly common response of both men and

t4For comparison see Goldman (1963) on the Cubeo, Thomas on the Pemon (1982: 159), Overing (1975, 1988b) on the Piaroa, Rivière (1984) on the peoples of the Guianas, MacCallum (1990:419) on the Cashinahua, and Johnson (1978:291-293) on the Machiguenga. 104

women to the 'anger' caused by the death of a beloved person'5. On the other band, the angered person is never fully approved of as Airo-Pai rhetoric makes clear. I frequently heard people making such comments as "I had better not be angered, it is purposeless" and they are highly aware that 'anger' leads to a deadly cycle of murder and revenge. By contrast, tranquillity is seen as the basis for coresidence and the raising of children. This state of comfort and growth is phrased by the Airo-Pai as the "increasing" of kin. For this reason, the emphasis in daily-life is upon 11-control and not upon the action out ofjustifiable anger. Occasionally, drinking parties may constitue an outlet for aggresive feelings and fights, but normally after the party the community again becomes peaceful'6. SECTION 2: A ROOT METAPHOR FOR COMMUNITY LIFE

As mentioned, the Airo-pai understand adulthood as intrinsically linked with the capability for 'raising' children. As will be seen, these concepts of 'raising' and 'being raised' are not limited to the parent-child relationship since they are pervasive in Airo-Pai thought. This relationship of 'raising' constitutes a root metaphor of what living in a community means for the Airo-Pai, and they apply it to the 'creation' and 'possession' of children, adults who take the metaphorical position of children, gardens, animals for the hunt and other beings of their cosmology. Such relationships are expressed in the link between the notions of the ëja and the joya. In Spanish, the Airo-Pai translate joya variously as: 'child', 'servant', 'pet', 'follower', 'helper', 'soldier'. Eja they gloss as:

'5Normally, death is self-infficted by drinking barbasco fish poison. Most adults are said to have attempted suicide at least once in their life after the death of a parent, sibling or child. For instance, a man killed himself after the death of his older brother, another man attempted to kill himself at the death of his young daughter and a woman attempted suicide after the death of her son. Suicide is also a relatively common response to ill treatment from a close relative or a spouse with whom one has been living for a long time. Although suicide is not uncommon among the Airo-Pai it is not endemic as among the Jivaro Aguaruna (see Brown 1985). '6During my fieldwork there were no incidences of physical violence. For an illustration, see Chapter 5 and also Vickers (1989:193), and for comparison with the Machiguenga see Johnson (1978:29 1). 105

'parent', 'guardian', 'master', 'chief, 'commander' 17. None of these English terms fully correspond to the indigenous concept. For the sake of comparison, since the gloss 'master' is so widespread in the literature, I will use 'master/parent' for ja and 'servant/child' for joya. As I will show, these concepts are better understood as following: 1) Eja: 'the one who raises' and 'the one who organizes the work and takes responsibility for it'; and 2)joya: 'the one who is being raised' and 'the one who whelps* and Rserves* The relationship of 'raising' which is expressed in the ëja-joya (master/parentservant/child) tie has a wide spectrum of relevance with regards to both 'this side' and 'the other side' of reality. For instance, a father or a mother is the master/parent of his or her children, a father-in-law or a mother-in-law is the master/parent of his or her children-in-law, a man or a woman is the master/parent of his or her chicken and cultivated plants, a headman of the settlement is the master/parent of his followers, a shaman is the master/parent of his spirits familiar, and similarly the other-worldly person Anaconda is said to be the master/parent of all the water animals. Every adult person has the capability for becoming a master/parent in different contexts. Furthermore, the positions of master/parent and servant/child are not rigidly assigned but are flexible and shifted according to the specific situation and aim of the interaction. For instance, when a young couple organizes a working-party for their garden, they act as master/parents for their parents and parents-in-law who in turn are said to uhelpw and Nserveu their child and child-in-law. The tone of the master/parent-servant/child relationship takes on different nuances depending on the case, and in some situations the pressure exerted upon the servant/child may be stronger than in others. In Chapters 6 and 71 will illustrate several instances where the master/parent-servant/child relationship is in action. For now, I will discuss its general meaning and the notion of possession that it contains. Santos-Granero (1991:163) has shown for the Amuesha of central Peru that the fatherchild relationship is the matrix of the representation of power relations for them. The

17 Joyao: feminine,joyaë: masculine; jao: feminine, Evaë: masculine. In publications by the Summer Institute of Linguistics joya is translated as 'domesticated' and by Cipolletti (1988b:158) as 'domestic animal'. As I show here this translation do not render the meaning of these concepts. Literally, the term ja is related to the idea of 'being tall and erected' (e-) and there might be a link betweenjoya and 'soul' (joyo). For comparison with similar notions among other Amazonian peoples see Colson (1989:7476), Ovring (1986b: 146, 1988b, 1992a), Townsley (1988:100), Seegers (1981:181), Descola: 317). 106

parent-child hierarchy, he argues, is based on 'love' and the effective life-giving act of the parental figure. In the Airo-Pai case, a similar notion of 'creating' is at the core of the representation of power expressed in their master/parent-servant/child tie. Such a relationship can be said to constitute a 'hierarchy of responsibility', to use the term coined by Thomas (1982:232). In sofar as the master/parent is effectively involved in the 'raising' of his servant/child, he or she has power of decision over it and may use it for his or her own benefit. However, there is not an antagonism but a complementarity between the master/parent's and the servant/child's wellbeing. Hence, the hierarchy between master/parent and servant/child cannot be seen as unilateral domination because the right to dispose of and demand from the servant/child derives from and confirms the sustained care bestowed to it. The master/parent-servant/child relationship may also be seen as a relationship of 'tutorage' in which the tutee is trained to become a full grown adult. It is important to note that when describing the interaction between individuals who are in a master/parentservant/child relationship the Airo-Pai make salient use of the causal voice1 . For instance, parents are said "to cause" the children to eat, grow up, think, work and live. Similarly, in the context of the working parties (see Chapter 6), the master/parent of the party is said to "cause" his guests to come together and work. The causal voice does not convey the idea of an imposition from parents to children, but rather it expresses the notion that parents enable their children to do something worthy. It was explained that if children were not so caused to act by their parents they would be incapable of directing their behaviour towards a worthy goal and would ramble to no purpose. Similarly, the "master/parent of the people" (paL eja) - that is the headman -does not give orders to his followers, but influences them by the example of his behaviour, his generosity and his counsel and advice. If the headman oversteps the bounds of acceptable authority and is perceived as coercive, his followers will abandon him (also see Vickers 1989). As the Airo-Pai say, the good headman "causes his people to live well". In the following chapters it will be shown that, for the Airo-Pai, the power to 'raise' and thus 'create' and

'Linguists define the causal voice thus: "it indicates that the subject of the verb is the agent that causes another person to effectuate the action" (Johnson & Wheeler 1987:82). Most transitive verbs of the Airo-Pai language can take the causal voice by adding a suffix to the basic radical. For instance: dal- (to come: medium voice), da- (to bring: active voice) and dao (to make somebody bring something: causal voice) (Johnson & Wheeler 1987:83). In Spanish, the Airo-Pai also make salient use of the causal voice. 107

'possess' children, people, plants, animals and other beings of their cosmology defines adulthood and the responsibilities of the 'good life' within the community. Part 2: PUBERTY AND ThE GENDERING OF GIRLS AND BOYS FOR WORK Here I concentrate on the gendering rituals of puberty. As will be shown, during these rites much attention is put on the production of gendered bodies and toward this end the bodies of men and women are strongly differentiated and spatially segregated. This demarcation has a determinant impact on the daily-life of post-pubescent men and women. For the Airo-Pai body shape is not only a matter of aesthetics but a crucial aspect of gender, production and moral disposition. In order that the young adults become gendered beings capable of work and reproduction appropriate to their gender they must acquire gendered bodies. The Airo-Pai terms for mature 'women' and 'men' also express this difference in bodily shape. The word 'woman" (nomio) derives from the term for "vagina" (floe), while the word for "man" (ëmë) means 'tall'. At the onset of puberty, boys should begin to develop hard muscles in order to walk long distances in the forest and to cut-down trees. In addition, men should be thin in order to 'fly' easily to the 'other side' and to becoming good shamans (see Vickers 1989:170). On the other hand, after the puberty rites, girls should gain weight in order to bear healthy children. They should be plump but robust in order

to

carry heavy weights and to endure the heat of the

cooking fire. Post-menopausal women are generally once again thin. SECTION 3: FEMALE PUBERTY Far from being seen as 'closer to nature"9, female reproductive capabilities are conceived as the result of social agency and physical manipulation. The Airo-Pai are preoccupied with the fear that a girl might not develop into a woman, but might remain "like a man". Thus, much attention is shown to the female child toward the end of gendering her.

19Ortner (1974:78) argues that universally, the cultural valuation of women places them as 'closer to nature' because of their physiology and reproductive roles. She goes on to say that the 'natural' woman is hence confined to the 'domestic' as opposed to men who operate in the domain of social life. These arguments are inappropriate in the AiroPai context. 108

al The production of menstruating women The first step of creating a woman's body is performed on the third to fourth day after the birth of the baby girl. The baby's genitalia are operated upon with a sharp-cutting shell - or a razor blade. This intervention is called "cutting the child's black skin" (siQ cwühu neanco te!tt!cO). It consists of scratching away the darker border of the labia

menore and piercing the hymen of the girl. The operation should preferably be performed by the maternal grand-mother. This is still current practice, although some parents have stop performing it. The Airo-Pai are aware that this custom is revolting to many 'whites' and they normally keep it secret from visitors (it is not reported in previous ethnographies). Women explained that if a baby girl were not operated upon she would be "like a man" (ëm!jpaiye) because she would be unable to menstruate. Such a state would be ugly and

"fearful-shameful" (cadaye). Men also presented another picture. They said: "who would want her black vagina?". They would not wish, nor really dare, to have sexual intercourse with a woman who had not been operated upon. bi The slowing down of menstruating women The first menses are the second occasion in which girls are given specialized attention, a step toward their acquisition of the capabilities for female work and fertility. A pubescent girl is called "ëco-pai" (growing-medicine-people)20, and she is submitted to severe discipline and confined to the "dirtiness-house" (sitsi hue 'e) for nine days. She is made to sit on banana leaves, with her legs stretched and joined. She is covered with a piece of cloth from head to bottom, and told to stare at her toenails paying no attention to what happens around her. She is fed only with sweet banana soup. Her mother and her maternal grand-mother give her 'advice' about the appropriate behaviour to have as an adult. The following account was given by a woman in her thirties: "'Look straight in front of you. If you look to the side your eyes will turn white. Don't look around. Sit still looking down only to your toenails. Don't scratch your head with your hand. If your head itches, use a small stick otherwise your hair will turn white when you are old'. My mother advised me, I listened and I obeyed. My head was covered and I took a stick from the floor to remove the hair from my face. 'When people come,

20The term co is used for a range of plants which are attributed to the power of making people grow up. But it may also refer to medicines in general (Langdon 1974:65; Vickers 1989). Among the Mai Huna, ëco means brunfelsia sp. (Bellier 1988:137). 109

don't turn to look and talk. It's wrong. You would become crazy. In this way I listened to my mother. When my menses finished, I washed with leaves of inga tree and I turned into a beautiful person. 'How do you think, young woman? Now that you have begun menstruating, you must learn to work hard. As soon as you know how to make everything, you may live well. When you go to the river take your jar with you and leave it on the shore. Go urinating down river first. Then, when you come back, carry water for the house. Once you are back home, take corn and prepare sweet beer to drink. Grind the corn sitting straight. Fill the big pan with water and put the corn on to boil'. This is how my mother taught me. 'Take another corn and toast it. When it is toasted chew it and mix that with the boiled corn. When the beer is ready it looks yellow. Offer it first to your husband and then to all the other people around, men and women'. When I was living in a small stream of the Siecoya river my breasts developed. I learned how to make everything. Sitting straight I am telling you this. (Lindavola, Huajoya) The Airo-Pai understand that the condition of the pubescent girl at first menstruation is extremely delicate. On the one hand, they fear that the girl could bleed to death. Her confinement is conceived of as a means of 'drying' her menstrual blood (see Vickers 1989:234). On the other hand, her body and her 'soul' are regarded to be 'soft' and mouldable like a newborn, and contact with both negative physical and moral qualities should be avoided lest they will mark the girl in her soft state, affecting her body and character irreversibly. In order to protect her and give her the correct moral and physical shape, the girl is therefore at, time isolated. The cloth which covers her, keeps her away from cold, heat, wind and wet. In addition, she is prohibited from touching her own body. All of these forms of separation tend to remove her from the world of sensation and action concealing her within a stable microcosm in which the sole source of stimulation available to her is the voice of her mother. Particular stress is put on stillness and slowness for pubescent girls, and menstruating women in general. When the menstrual confmement finishes, the girl should not run for a few days21 . It is crucial that her movements should be slow lest she would transform into a disturbed being like the red deer (ma fiamd). As the Afro-Pai put it, the red deer

211n the past, when the menstrual confinement ended, the hairs on the head of the pubescent girl were pulled away one by one, causing the scalp to swell. The head was then painted with bixa orellana (Vickers 1989:235). Some pubescent men went through the same depilatory practice. They dressed like women, using peach palm fruits to imitate breasts. These men were called wwomen wanters" (nomi yequl). According to my informants, they were not homosexuals but travesties who seduced young girls into the forest in order to have sex with them. 110

behaves crazily because: "it jumps from one side to the other, going nowhere". This animal represents the sort of restlessness and lack of purpose which is considered to characterise the women who do not respect menstrual restraint. After the puberty rites, each time she menstruates a woman respects the hygienic code she learnt at puberty. She sits on banana leaves for (approximately) five days and refrains from touching any object - crockery in particular - that may be touched by a man. She waits to be fed, stops most of her daily tasks, and normally concentrates on spinning and weaving cotton (although this custom is now being abandoned). When the bleeding stops, she washes herself with the leaves of an inga tree and hot water. Then, she takes a bath in the river. Finally, she chews the leaves of hue 'oco (justicia sp.) which blackens her teeth and makes them resistant to decay (King 1981:43). Puberty also means a change of status. It was explained that: "Before puberty, a girl helped her mother like playing. After the onset of her menses she has to work hard and on her own". When the menstrual confinement is concluded, the girl is made to grind large quantities of corn to strengthen her arms. She prepares the corn into sweet beer or bread and distributes personally the products of her work to all of the adult women of the community. As we see, for the Afro-Pai, learning to produce and learning to offer one's products of work are intrinsically linked. The right balance between offering and consuming is one of the salient matters elaborated during female puberty because it is feared that the young girl may become a big eater and stingy with her food (see Vickers 1989:234). Female body weight is also associated with reproductive functions. During her confmement, the girl is expected to lose weight, but after it, she should accumulate fat in order to bear healthy children. The Airo-Pai understand that pregnancy and breast-

In mythology, the imprudence of a pubescent girl is the cause of the limited number of Airo-Pai on this earth. In mythic times, the Airo-Pai lived inside the earth and ate red earth. The person Moon (Nañe) gave them real peach-palm (bactris gasipaes) beer to taste and invited them to join him on the surface of the earth. The people began emerging from a hole until a menstruating girl appeared. Moon become angered at her sight and covered the hole, impeding the ascension of more people. He transformed the girl into a red-deer (Cipolletti 1988:64). The meat of this animal is never eaten. Red deer is considered inedible by several Amazonian groups, such as the Jivaro Achuar, see Descola (1986:118). 'The Western-Tukanoan speaking Siona say that at puberty a girl is "expelling the blood of her mother". Langdon interprets this as an assertion that the girl becomes an "independent individual" (Langdon 1974:97). 111

feeding are extremely demanding activities and only plump women can endure it. Several measures are taken in order to prevent thinness, the first of which is that women are persuaded to have a good appetite. Other measures are that women should not take long trips in the forest nor have many pregnancies, either continued or interrupted, because these are seen to induce weight loss and, if repeated, to cause death. Thus, women should eat well, and at the same time they should not be greedy to the point of depriving their husbands, children, and neighbours of food. This anxiety surrounding female gluttony is openly expressed in daily talk and within mythology (Cipolletti 1988:188). Thus, it appears that menstrual seclusion is a means of slowing down the general rhythm of life of a woman, especially her appetite. Women usually complain that the worst thing about menstrual seclusion is having to wait to be served food. They are not accustomed to this because on normal days they are entirely responsible for the preparation and serving of food and free to take snacks whenever they wish. Crocker (1985:60), argues for the Bororo that menstruating women are not supposed to engage in productive activities. This is not the case among the Airo-Pai since menstruating women spin and weave cotton. A woman is also free to work in her garden, although she may not walk by the usual paths to her garden because these are also used by men. What women are not expected to do is to touch which is commonly touched by men because it is thought that this would cause men to be ill (see section 5). Therefore, a menstruating woman cannot serve food to men. As she is not allowed to be an active 'giver' of food or objects, she is constrained to remain at the receiving end. c) The origin of menstruation In mytholo2v Here, I will explore the central myth about the origin of menstruation. I will argue that this myth is not a charter of male domination over wome&4, but rather it elaborates upon the idea that in mythic times man and woman gendered each other and hence enabled each other to reproduce. According to my informants, their myths (al cocua: old language) tell about the primal transformations which lead to the present order of life. Myths are ordered along a logico-temporal line. The first accounts refer to the usoftrau (ajine). This era was 'soft', it was explained, because people, animals, and things could

Bamberger (1974:275) argues that myths in Amazonian societies "establish guidelines for sexual behaviour, at least in the minds of the listeners" and have the function to teach boys that men, not women rule, even though childhood domestic experience may lead them to think otherwise. 112

easily transform into one another. There are two sorts of 'soft-era' myths: those relating to the time "when Moon was on this earth", and those referring to the period following Moon's earthly journey. In the current era, things are 'hard' (7eaque) and transformations are dangerous. Myths describe the loss of pre-existent qualities and the acquisition of new ones, but the Airo-Pai stress the loss. The indigenous expression is "to spo11" (malograr. The person Moon (Naflé) is the big mythic 'spoiler' and trickster. In Spanish, he is said to be a "zidejo" (the 'intelligent-idiot' in the regional meaning) and his main motivation is to enjoy himself by "irritating" (fastidiar) everyone. Moon has little in common with the thoughtful Judeo-Christian demiurge who creates his masterpiece - the universe - after his very wise plans. Indeed, Moon walks on the earth seeking fun and to win all challenges. However, he is said to have "left behind" (jeafle) the present order of life and is referred to as "our father" (ma! jaqué). In Spanish,

he is called with endearment "little god" (diosito). He is said to be 'god' because "what he thinks becomes reality". The mythic cycle depicts the competition between Moon and his father-in-law Tapir (huque) because "Tapir wanted to be Moon instead of Moon", as the Airo-Pai say it. In the end, Moon transforms Tapir into the animal tapir. The following passage tells why Tapir became "angered" at Moon. "Before (sroE), Moon disliked his hands and feet because they did not have curved palms. He thought: "How could I cut a piece off?". He was sitting on a branch looking at the two daughters of Tapir who were asleep, lying on the earth. Their vaginas had teeth. They were constantly clapping making a noise which could be heard from afar. Moon came down the branch and put one foot above the vagina of one of his wives. Pac! The teeth bit a chunk off. Then he placed the other foot. Pac!. One hand, and then other. Pac! Pac!. He was happy with his new hand-palms (/tëjao) and foot-palms (quëQjao). Then, he took a piece of fibre (astrocalywn), made a thread, knotted it around the vagina, and pulled out the jaw. It flew away and became a bat (oyo). He pulled out the jaw of his other wife. It flew away and stuck onto a tree which became the 'vaginatree'(sëaM noé, raca caspi). Then, He climbed back to his branch. When the women woke-up they were menstruating for the first time. They remained silent. Moon thought: "why don't they tell me that they are making 'dirtiness'(sitsiO)?". So they did, and said: "husband, we are

Goadehuaye, Literally: to put things in a purposeless order (goalpurposeless, dehuayelto put in order).

' Like in the European fables, the invincible Moon is defeated by the smallest beings: the cockroaches, the crickets and the insects of the night. These animals 'bored' him. Thus, he decided to establish himself up in the sky, and left. Before leaving, he transformed the mythical people into animals for the hunt, see Cipolletti (1988:31). 113

already spoiled'. Each of them took a leaf to drink from it. Then, they went back to their father's house and sat in a corner. Tapir asked them:"why are you coming without any noise?'. 'We arc already making dirtiness", they answered. When Moon returned, Tapir recriminated him: "Why did you spoil my daughters?". From that moment, Tapir conceived the desire to spoil Moon in returnV. (Cesario, Huajoya) Thus, Moon obtained his hands from the bite of the vagina-dentata and then used his hand to make his first fibre-thread with which he pulled out the dangerous teeth and caused women to menstruate. Thus, Moon relates to Woodpecker which digs out holes in trees to make the parrot's nest (the woman's womb, see Chapter 3) and to the maternal grand-mother who operates upon her baby grand-daughter to enable her to menstruate. The mythical vagina-dentata is instrumental in this gendering process because without it men would not have appropriate hands to make fibre thread and weave. In Chapter 3, I demonstrated that the fabrication of fibre thread and hammocks by men is associated with male fertility and the male aspect of the womb (the hammock). It becomes clear that this myth describes the acquisition of both male and female fertility and not just female menstruation as it appears at first sight. From the female vagina-dentata men acquired hands to weave the male womb (the hammock). Then, from these new hands, women acquired menstruation and a safe cavity in their body to 'nest' the foetus. Thus, male and female gendered each other. SECTION 4: MALE PUBERTY Most of the rites which surrounded male puberty are not in current practice. At present pubescent boys are expected to hunt on their own and sent in the forest by themselves for several days. They should also weave several hammocks, sieves and fans on their own. Up to seven to ten years ago male puberty involved a complex programme for acquiring bodies resistant to pain and able to walk in the forest and hunt. The youth were also taught fibre-weaving competence and the taking of yage (banisteriopsis). The pubescent boys were isolated in a special hut called the "yage house" (yajé huë'e) where no menstruating women had ever entered (see CICAME 1990a:40) and concentrated on

Another version is recorded in Cipolletti (1988:46). A different myth of the origin of menstruation relates to the first birth of baby-boys: the burning sun (dayXjsë) and his burnt brother (night) (toae) (ibid:65). Other accounts which do not belong to the cycle of Moon state that men used to menstruate (see Vickers 1989:215). 114

yage-drinking and the pursuit of other-worldly knowledge. a) The 'advice' of the 'livin2-people One of the central goals of the 'yage house' was to bring the group of initiated to the other-worldly vision of the 'unripe-people' (see Chapter 3). This specific type of vision was called "living-people" (paico-paj) and it was regarded as a means of teaching the youth "how to work hard". Thus, the use of shamanism during the puberty rites had an explicit pedagogical purpose. Here, I reproduce a chant describing this vision and its indigenous exegesis (in brackets). The song of the Living-People

We arrive standing coming down Ponë ponë queeree queeree living-people (the living-people come-running and their necklaces sound pont ponë queeree queeree) Also another circle (more living-people arrive arms flank over the shoulders of one another) 4 Carrying yo'co standing coming down (the living-people advise the boys in this earth that they should live like yo 'Co (paulliania), because with yo 'CO people live peacefully. Yo 'co is like a father, it makes people perform all kinds of work) 5 Carrying yo 'co for a visit coming down (they say that they come for a visit, but in fact this is an advice that by drinking yo 'co one lives well) Bitter taste (yo 'co tastes bitter) 6 Living Huinsica standing coming down (they bring perfumed plants 7 (unidentified) to wear in an armiet) Living yape standing coming down (these are other perfumed plants 8 (unidentified)) Don't think back (don't search evilness) 9 10 Think in front (that is good) 11 Perfumed standing coming down (they come cheerfully, saying that when one wears perfumed plants one works with enthusiasm) 12 We arrive Penca penca queeree queeree living-people standing coming down 13 14 Also another circle watching coming down Weave the little oropendola nest (the living-people say that one should make 15 hammocks) 16 Purposeful (in this way we are fine, we live peacefully) 17 Also another circle watching coming down 18 Purposeful Weaving the Living leaves (these are the leaves (palnzaceae sp.) to thatch the 19 roof) Sie tro sie tro (this is the sound of the bunch of leaves when they are brought in) 20 We bring lianas (the liana (cyclanraceae sp.) is used to tie-up the wooden 21 structure of the house) 22 BrIng the lianas to the the house (all these form advice to show the boys in this earth how to build a house in a group) 1 2 3

115

23 Do you see now? 24 Do you see how they arrive carrying yo'co? (the advice is now finishing, the living people are saying to the boys : 'this is what you should have seen') 25 Thinking In this way you will live well 26 Think to paint your face with bixa In order to live (they are advising the boys that one should not work without adequate decoration) 27 The rafters, we bring white logs (when there is a large group of people we work beautifully, we rejoice, it is easy to carry the logs together) 28 Think in this way, oropendola child (the living-people call the boys in this earth oropendolas, the oropendolas-boys are the pupils of the living-people) 29 Also another path 30 RavIng put on our wooden crowns 31 We make our baskets sitting 32 At the other side of the house other people are making fans sitting LivIng-people making fans sitting 33 34 Thinklnthlswaytosit We arrive to our mother's (The living people call the house 'mother') 35 36 The skin of our mother Is red sitting (because the leaves of the roof are new) 37 She puts on body painting sitting (They say that the house is putting body painting because the wood-sticks on which the leaves are knitted to thatch the roof are new and decorated) She puts on her beads sitting (The beads of the house are her necklaces of 38 leaves of the thatch roof) 39 Living mother wakes-up to stand-up (The house gives us life, it makes us standup and work) 40 Purposeful wakes-up to stand up (The house is our mother and she guides us, teaching us how to work and how to leave peacefully) 41 We, the living young men, we arrive 42 Do you see now? (Oscar, Huajoya)

In this other-worldly scene the 'living-people' drink yo'co (paulliania), paint, and perfume themselves in order to have the strength to produce fibre objects and build the communal long-house. The exegesis reveals that such a vision is in fact an 'advice' with a pedagogical purpose. The initiated receive from the 'living-people' the knowledge for production and social life. This chant is thus a good example of how shamanism is used for the transmission of moral values and the continuity of residence patterns from generation to generation. b The house as a model of community and fatherhood The model of residence depicted in the above shamanic song is embedded in indigenous notions of morality because the action of building the communal house together is described as being eminently social. The edifice of the 'living-house' is conceived of as an energy-giving mother (paico jaco) which awakens in the youngsters the desire to 116

work communally. The mother-house itself is understood to be the outcome of cheerful co-operation between its inhabitants. The main building is similar to a person-tree, with its necklaces of leaves. Its body is completed with furnishing of the hammocks to hang from the rafters, the sieves to prepare food, and the fans to blow the fire in the hearths. In addition to being a model of community, this 'living-house' is also a model for individual male fertility. In the chant, the initiated boys are called 'oropendolas' and the hammocks 'little oropendola nest'. As I demonstrated in Chapter 3, the hammock is a man's 'nest' and the male aspect of the womb in which he brings up his offspring. The exegesis of the song of the 'living-people' reveals that community life is metaphorically represented in terms of multiple forms of 'parenting'. As the house 'mothers' her inhabitants, her 'motherhood' enables each individual man to father his own children by producing a 'nest' for them. The creation of community (physically and morally) and individual capabilities of reproduction are hence tightly knitted together in these teachings of male puberty2. Currently, single-house settlements have been abandoned and multiple-houses settlements have replaced them. Nevertheless, the houses are still built communally. Men construct the wooden frame while women clean the place and "help" weave the roof. Although the members of one settlement do not sleep under the same roof any longer, they constantly interact and share food among themselves. The spirit of community described in the shamanic chant is thus still alive. SECTION 5: ArIER PUBERTY a) Menstrual blood and the other-world The Airo-Pai understand that yage and menstrual blood should be kept separate. Menstruating women should not mix with men or touch any object or food to be touched by post-pubescent men lest the menstrual blood will "contaminate" (seaye) the men and cause them nasal bleeding. My informants explained that the contamination with

'Airo-Pai male initiation may be compared to the rituals of the He House and the 'waking up houses' among the Barasana. S. Hugh-Jones (1979:38, 139) shows that the initiation serves to express the complementarity between sexes in production and reproduction and to integrate young men into a sib. My Airo-Pai informants did not mention the question of 'clan' membership. The Airo-Pai also have sacred bamboo flutes (lens), but as I had the oportunity to witness, today there are no sanctions on women seeing and touching them. 117

menstrual blood "damages the head" of all men but particularly of those who have taken yage because the head is the centre of the hallucinogenic "drunkenness" (huepeye) and "vision" (toyd). This specific illness is called "illness of the other" (tiQ dahu) or "dirtiness illness" (sitsi dahuë). A minor contamination would cause men to suffer headaches, but a major one (like having sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman) would cause the yage-drinker to die of nasal haemorrhage. Menstruating women should not take yage lest they would die of vaginal haemorrhage. A woman in child-bearing age may take yage when she is "like a man", meaning that she has no sign of menstrual blood on her (approximately ten days after her period has stopped) because the smell of menstrual blood is said to attract human-eater monsters. In addition, The Airo-Pai understand that if the unripe-people were to have contact with menstrual blood, this would cause the sky to collapse onto the earth. Similarly, men should not have sexual intercourse before taking yage because the smell of sperm is said to irritate the unripe-people. As I have indicated in the last chapter, menstruation is conceived of as a powerful source of fertility and organic flux whereas the unripe-people are seen to be fertile in the knowledgeable sense but unable to reproduce in a bodily way. The power of menstruation and the power of the unripe-people should thus be kept apart. It should be pointed out that women in child-bearing age do not see themselves as being denied access to power because they do not specialize in the drinking of yage. Generally, they dislike the idea of drinking yage because it is "too hard on the body", they say. Occasionally, they may drink it in order to 'see' a dead child or parent. Men explained that young women rarely learn to chant and the taking of yage makes them cry at the memory of their dead kin. Post-menopausal women, may gain great shamarnc knowledge. For instance, the paternal grand-mother of the current headman of Huajoya was a shaman of renown.

b) Menstruation and the order of life In the settlement Although communal yage-drinking sessions were not performed during the time of my fieldwork, the precautions concerning menstrual pollution were observed. This affected the schooling of pubescent girls who were not allowed to enter the class when they are menstruating. In spite of the precautions taken, regularly men consider themselves to have been contaminated with menstrual blood. For instance, several times men requested aspirin tablets from me to calm headaches which they said were caused by their imprudent contact with a menstruating woman. 118

The concern with menstrual contamination determines the daily use of space and the distribution of tasks. At present, a menstruating woman normally remains in a corner of her house which is adequately ftrthshed. The floor is covered with banana leaves, so that no blood may touch it. She lies in a hammock and wears clothes reserved for her menses. A small opening in the house's palm wall is set up just beside her, and a precarious wooden ladder is adjusted to it. From her corner, the woman observes what is going on in the rest of the house. She speaks and she is spoken to, she is served food and drink in improvised containers made with banana leaves, which are immediately thrown away in the river. Generally, she rests and ceases working altogether. When a woman menstruates it is not kept secret. On the contrary, it is public knowledge and quite rightly since the menstrual cycles of the women shape daily life in the community. Usually, there is always a women menstruating in one of the houses of the village. Sometimes, several women menstruate together and this affects the organization of work in each house and in the community as a whole. Thus, all the plans of activities take into account whether the women will be menstruating or not. The days of menstruation bring about major changes in the distribution of tasks between husband and wife. Since she should not touch the objects or food which will also be touched by a grown-up man, it is her husband who cooks, serves the food, and keeps the house clean. The menstruating woman rests and remains at the receiving end. If the spouses have a daughter old enough to perform this task - who is not menstruating - she would replace her mother. Otherwise, the husband does it. He will also cook during the long three weeks post-natal confinement of his wife and whenever she is ill. There is no shame in this for a man. On the contrary, men are particularly proud of their cooking skills. Nevertheless, their recipes are less elaborate than their wives' and they rarely bake bread. Although it may seem paradoxical, an Airo-Pai man protects his manly health and his capability for being a good shaman by acting as though he were a woman: cooking and serving food. As we see, the Airo-Pai do not take gender difference for granted. In order to avoid an ever-present dangerous and infertile state of non-differentiation, the difference between men and women is constantly being recreated in a process which states their difference and also inverts their difference. This complex process of gender differentiation is not relegated to the symbolic domain, but rather it is a salient aspect of

9In the past, menstruating women were confined to one of the corners of the longhouse or in a special hut. 119

every day practice in the settlement. The next chapter continues on the theme of gendering and looks at how gendering is achieved within the relationship of marriage.

120

CHAFFER 5: MARITAL COMPANIONSHIP This chapter is concerned with the relationship between husband and wife. The notions laid down here are the basis for the examination of the communal production, distribution and consumption of food that I will develop in Chapters 6 and 7. As I will show there, the married couple constitutes neither a bounded unit of production nor consumption. Hence, marital duties and expectations must be understood in connection with the community at large. For now, I concentrate on the married pair. In section 1, I look at the marriage ceremony of young people. I will argue that the wedding is conceived of as a learning ritual that is key to the acquisition by the youth of gender agency and the capability for engaging in parenthood. In section 2, I examine how the parents-in-law train the newlyweds during their first years of marriage to fulfil their obligations. I then move on in section 3 to the description of conjugal rights and duties, especially concerning the making and offering of tools and other artifacts. The gendered division of tasks, I will show, gives force to the process of livelihood that is based on the complementarity and balanced reciprocity of services between the spouses. I then look at how the responsibilities for children motivate their parents to work. In section 4, I turn to the description of aspects of conjugal 'togetherness': sleeping, eating and bathing together and assisting and talking to one another. The subjects of disapproved behaviour between spouses and authority within the marital unit are discussed in section 5. I conclude by an examination of the Airo-Pai case with respect to the debates about brideservice societies. SECTION 1: THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY a) Lying toetber In the hammock For the Airo-Pai as for other Amazon an peoples, cohabitation means marriage. A man and a woman who "accompany each other" (cofle) consider themselves - and are regarded by their neighbours - as "husband" (paque) and "wife" (paco). But, unlike other Amazonian peoples who have no marriage ritual1 , the Airo-Pai do have a concept of wedding as expressed by the term huejaye (that derives from the term huefle: to lie in a

'like the Piaroa, the Trio, the Cashinahua, just to name some. 121

hammock). The idea of huejaye refers to the public action of a man and woman lying together in a hammock during a feast so as to be seen by everyone. The important point is that the organization of the wedding depends on the age of the spouses to-be. The wedding of teenagers is a very serious matter that should take place during a feast of inter-communal scale organized by the parents of the bride and the groom as part of their marriage conversations (see Chapter 2). By contrast, the wedding of adults - upon divorce or the death of the spouse - does not require parental organization and is usually initiated by the spouses to-be. They lie together in a hammock so as to be seen by everyone during a drinking feast, and on the next day the bride moves into the groom's house. Here I will concentrate on the wedding of young adults. It is my argument that the marriage ceremony of young people is a cross-sex puberty rite with a formative purpose for both the bride and the groom. The Airo-Pai explicitly state that the wedding aims to "teach the youth how to live with his or her spouse". The wedding feast takes place soon after the single-sex puberty rites (described in the last chapter), the average age for girls being fourteen and sixteen for boys2. It became clear to me that people consider it more or less inevitable that those youngsters who, for one reason or another, do not go through a proper wedding ceremony would have difficulties behaving morally in adult life. They would neglect their obligations towards kin and spouse and also be bad tempered. For instance, when young couples argue, people promptly comment on whether they were properly wedded or not. Adults (who have already been married as teenagers) are expected to make appropriate decisions in a more autonomous way. Thus, they may remarry "just like that" (asf no más) - without parental guidance - because they already have personal marital experience. To hold a crowded wedding feast carries prestige for the parents of the younstgers. This celebration has several socio-political implications that I will not analyze in this thesis (see Chapter 2), but it should be noted that it is as important an event in the life of the parents as it is for their children. The young people - boy and girl- are supposed to accept the partner chosen by their parents and go through the wedding as a sign of "respect" (arsaye) towards them, as the Airo-Pai put it. The ceremony is understood to teach the youth but it is not thought of as a contract nor as a guarantee of a life-long marriage, although a lasting union is indeed highly recommended. As I will show below,

2Weddings are also organized for a young bride with an older adult groom, but such an age difference is unusual today. 122

the wedding of youngsters is only the starting point of the process of learning how to lead a married life, a process in which the parents of the bride and the groom train and assist their children to fulfil their obligations to one another and to bear children. Although spontaneous unions of youngsters, which occur without parental organization, are not uncommon (see appendix 1), they are nevertheless always disapproved of, at least in principle. Depending on the circumstances, the parents may overcome their grief caused by their children's "lack of respect" and subsequently entertain normal relationships with the couple. Separations are frequent between both those who went through a proper wedding and those who did not, the difference being that the former may undergo greater pressure from their parents to remain together. It became clear to me that the parents of both the bride and the groom want their children to form a stable couple. For this reason, during the first years of marriage they will actively push, exhort and assist the young couple to settle down. If after three or four years the new spouses still feel unhappy, divorce is the most likely result. The parents would then normally support their children in such a decision.

The theoretical postulate that marriage is the exchange of women by men (Levi-Strauss 1968:296-7) fails to capture the Airo-Pai idea that in the relationship of marriage boys and girls acquire gender identity. Strathern (1988) has argued that anthropologists tend to assume that gender exists outside other social relations. She shows that gender

identities in Melanesian societies are created within social relations. The same argument is developed by Gow (1991) and McCallum (1989) concerning Piro and Cashinahua gender construction within the relationship of marriage. As I shall show here, in Airo-Pai thought one may learn to be a gendered spouse only by 'doing it' under the supervision of one's parents and parents-in-law. The parents of the bride and the groom pool their efforts in order to create a new couple and to enable them to procreate their grandchildren. The pivot of Airo-Pai marriage, I then argue, is not the exchange of women by men but the relationship between the spouses who are taught by their parents how to unite their skills in order to achieve "the work of reproduction and production" (see Overing 1988a:29). b) The wedding feast

Up to fifteen to twenty years ago, the wedding feast of adolescents lasted for several days. In preparation for the festivities arranged during the 'marriage conversations', the husband-to-be remained for several months (up to a year) with his future in-laws during 123

which he and they produced large amounts of food - meat and vegetables - to be consumed during the feast. This period was thus a form of brideservice oriented to the organization of the wedding feast. At present, the wedding ritual is much simpler and this pre-marital brideservice is in decline. On the day of the ceremony, the villagers and guests gather in the bride's house where they are offered manioc beer. The bride and groom are made to stand facing one another while their parents give them 'advice'. The young people axe supposed to listen attentively in spite of the atmosphere of confusion as everyone in the meeting attempts to give a speech, especially the men. The spouses are then made to lie in a hammock, and it is tied up with them inside. They spend the night - or part of it - in this rather uncomfortable position3. The significance of the hammock should be understood in relation to the data analyzed in the previous chapters. As I showed there, the hammock is the man's 'nest'. Thus, in

the wedding ceremony the parents of the bride and the groom make their children lie together in this 'nest'. It should be noted the absence of any expression of hunting or robbing the bride. Both the girl and the boy tied inside the hammock are equally obedient to their parents. As I will show later on, at the core of the day-to-day marital

companionship resides the fact that the husband offers a hammock - or a place in his hammock - to his wife. The hammock being a 'nest', is the breeding place for humans but it is not the place where sexual intercourse is supposed to take place. The Airo-Pai explicitly state that one should have sex at the edge of the garden and the forest. Therefore, the action of lying together does not denote sexual intercourse as such but parenthood4 . As the following speeches reveal, the wedding is not conceived in terms of the bride or groom receiving their respective sexual partner as such. To the Airo-Pai, the wedding is a question of two sets of parents uniting their children and pushing them to become parents in their turn. 3Spontaneous weddings of young adults are normally said to begin during drinking parties. The accounts of the events often state that the woman joined of her own volition themaninahammockastobeseeji byallthepeoplepresent.Aslhavesaid(Chapter 2) the Airo-Pai tend to construct marriage as the outcome of the woman's initiative because this is a characteristic feature of peaceful relationships. To my knowledge, girls do tend to take the initiative when flirting with boys. 4Pre-marital sexual relationships are generally disapproved for both girls and boys. Nevertheless, pubescent girls boost and joke about their sexual prowess. It was explained that pre-marital sex was not a major problem as long as the girl and the boy in question were not promised in marriage to another person, in which case, the fiance would be rightly jealous. 124

c) The marital 'advice' I now focus on the pieces of advice given during the ceremon?. The groom's father's speech: "How do you think? It is your desire to get married, and how will you live? People cannot endure without company. Together man and woman live tranquilly looking after one another. At dawn you should think: 'The woman does not know how to walk in the forest. The man knows how ugly the forest is and he suffers walking when there are many thorns'. You should think: 'What will my wife eat? She makes drinks for me. Why can I not make something for her? I had rather go to the forest'. If you are not given advice, you cannot learn. Then, how will you live with your wife if you have not listemto the words of our grand-parents? Young woman look after your husband, and young man look after your wife. This is what our grand-parents advised us. Who is your father? Who is your mother? He is now your grand-father, she is now your grandmother, now that you are married. You, 'man', your wife is your mother. And you, 'woman', your husband is your father. This is how you ought to think because in this way our grand-parents left it behind for us. You will not remain the two of you on your own. You will have children. How will that child live? Your children will grow up and they will do the same things that you did. When you die, your child would think: 'my parents lived in this way. This is how I am going to live as well'. One ought to think like people". (Oscar, Huajoya) The bride's mother's speech: "Young woman, now you want to marry. When your husband clears the forest, What should you do? Plant manioc, corn, plantain, everything. When the manioc is growing weed out the weeds, so that it will grow quicker. If you do this, you will have everything to eat. Your husband will go to the forest and return late in the evening. Be at home when he returns and serve him a drink. While he is having a bath, prepare the fire, clean the meat, and cook it nicely. Then, eat the two of you together. Newlyweds should not eat separately. Do not be fearful-ashamed (cadaye) he will be like your father, a good father for you, and you will be like his mother. With your husband, you will have children. How are you going to live with your child? As you listen to me speaking, you will learn to look after your child. Thinking in this way you will live well". (Celina, Huajoya) These speeches are instructive of the Airo-Pai conceptualization of the proper marital

was unable to record speeches during the wedding ceremony at which I assisted because of its general confusion. I asked some older people to describe their own wedding. They gave me an oral quotation of their parents' speeches. Oral quotation of other people's talks is a typical feature of Airo-Pai narrative of personal accounts. 125

relationship that I will discuss in the rest of this chapter. The insistence on the youth's alleged willingness to marry is intriguing since my informants claimed that they did not want to do so but they had to out of respect for their parents. Here again, there is an example of the characteristic Afro-Pal 'trick' to phrase peaceful and respectful relationships in terms of personal willingness. As an informant pointed out to me, to refuse to marry as one's parents recommend is a sign of "CflS" and thus of lack of moral will, whereas to accept is a positive sign of moral will. It is in this light that 1 will interpret the marital 'advice'. The parents

of

the bride and the groom attribute the

capability for moral 'thinking' to their children as a start. On this basis, they then exhort the young people to adhere to the moral behaviour that corresponds to each according to gender. In other words, the ability to behave morally is presented as coming from the youth and not as imposed on them by their parents. This is, I think, a decisive point and the basis for the personal autonomy that the young spouses are encouraged to develop as time goes b?. An important point concerns the references to parenting. On the one hand, the marital advice displays a lucid programme for social reproduction. The parents of the bride and groom exhort the young couple to have children, that is to bear their grand-children and to bring them up following their teachings. Marriage is thus understood as a means of

achieving parenthood. Gow (1991) notes for the Piro of the Bajo Urubamba that marriage allows men and women to engage in 'relationships of caring' towards their children. While the Piro spouses do not see themselves as 'caring' for each other but as 'demanding' the satisfaction of gender specific desires from each other, the Airo-Pai spouses are exhorted to "look after"

(iFta_caiye) one

another. For the Airo-Pai 'relations

of demand' are an aspect of 'relations of caring' (or 'hierarchy of responsibility' in Thomas' (1982) words and in Overing's (1988a) 'relations of tranquility'). Therefore, marital and kin ties have both a 'demanding' and a 'caring' side, but one may demand something in as much as this is understood to be conducive to the bestowal of care. In the pieces of advice, the replacement of generations also operates at an analogical level. The wife is encouraged to see a father in her husband, and reciprocally he is exhorted

The youngsters may categorically refuse to marry. If their parents attempt to force them, they may run away temporarily. Generally, orphans undergo more pressure to marry against their will. For instance, an orphan girl from the community of Bellavista attempted suicide by taking fish poison because her older brother threatened to force her to marry against her will. The girl recovered and the wedding did not take place. 126

to see a mother in his wife. The real father and mother of the bride and the groom, respectively, are pushed upwards to the second ascending generation. With a husbandfather and a wife-mother the couple is virtually self-sufficient. The interaction between the spouses in described in terms of balanced reciprocity such that the work of one spouse is supported by the work of the other. In section 3, I will examine the nature of this reciprocity of services in detail. SECTION 2: LEARNING TO BE A SPOUSE Young people axe not enthusiastic over the prospect of their marriage. Both girls and boys they say to feel 'fear-shame' (cadaye) and are not easily disposed to assuming the responsibilities entailed by married life. Nevertheless, their parents urge them to marry. When a girl refuses a man suggested by her parents, they reprimand her saying that as a single woman she would have no house in which to live. To a boy, his parents stress that he would have no food to eat. To both, the idea of not having children is stated as unacceptable. In practice, however, the intensity of work done by girls and boys does not increase sharply upon marriage. In order to account for the progression of the young spouses we must understand the development of the relationship between them and their parents. al Livin2 with one's parents-in-law As mentioned, traditionally a period of brideservice took place before the wedding and after the wedding residence was virilocal. At present, the situation is mixed and there are also cases of post-marital uxorilocahty. In all cases, during the first years of marriage the young spouses live in the house of the parents of one of them 7. For the Airo-Pai, this period is a learning period for the newlyweds. The in-coming spouse, in particular, faces the difficulty of having to learn to cohabit with unfamiliar people, and this is particularly so when his or her parents dwell in another village. The parents and parents-in-law play a crucial role at pushing, exhorting and assisting the young spouses to get accustomed to one another and take on responsibilities. They also evaluate their progress, so that if they

71n the old long-houses, after the wedding, the young couple would sleep in the apartment of the groom's father for one or two years until there was room in the house for them to have their own apartment. 127

feel unhappy about their child's spouse, they may be very effective at causing the breakup of the couple's marriage. In the first years of marriage and while they are living with the parents of one of them, however, the newlyweds are allowed a certain degree of negligence because they still "do not know how to think", as their elders put it. The young pair is progressively encouraged to lead its own married life, to cultivate its own garden and to produce its own food. They are also encouraged to take part in the network of food offerings and assistance linking community members, including their parents. The economic link is the stronger between child-in-law and parents-in-law who live under the same roof regardless of whether the latter are the bride's or the groom's parents. The organization of production, distribution and consumption are extensively analyzed in the following chapters. For now, it should be noted that the economic relationship between parents-in-law and child-in-law is typical of people who share the same house whether they are close kin or affines. The parents-in-law benefit from the productive activities of their married children indirectly, in as much as the young spouses perform correctly as a couple and show "respect-gratitude" (oiye) for them. In other words, there is no good daughter-in-law or son-in-law who is not a good wife or husband as well. The real dimension of the young spouses's contribution to the maintenance of their elders concerns the latter's health. If the young spouses cohabit with healthy parents-inlaw, the advantage may be greater for the former than for the latter. In general, adult people in the full of their working capacity are more assiduous and productive than younger people. The young couple gains indirectly from sharing food with and receiving the assistance of productive adults. Parents-in-law normally "help", as Airo-Pai put it, the young spouses with their own tasks. For example, a mother-in-law may "help" her daughter-in-law to make manioc beer or to make pots. A father-in-law may lend his rifle and give ammunition to his son-in-law. The young spouses also "help" them, but they are both less experienced and hard-working. Gradually, with the assistance of the parents-inlaw, the young spouses learn to work as hard as their elders. b Providing for one's parents and parents-in-law After two to three years of cohabitation and especially after the birth of children, the young couple builds its own house - generally just next to the house where they have been living. At this stage, the relationship between child-in-law and parents-in-law is one of mutual aid and mutual offerings of raw and cooked food, as I will show in the following chapters. Although children-in-law owe respect, such restraint should not be 128

construed as creating relations of domination or subordination because it does not entail a unilateral bestowal of services. Unlike other Amazonian groups, the Afro-Pai stress the mutuality of services between parent-in-law and child-in-law'. Parents-in-law and children-in-law are both said to "look after" (iflQcaiye) each other and they both expect to receive food and assistance from the other. As the parents-in-law become elderly, the contribution of their children becomes more important. However, the elderly do not resign themselves to becoming a burden upon their children-in-law or other relatives. In general, they are modest, kind, and highly proud of their working skills. Certainly, elderly people are not 'bossy' persons, and they continue to produce food to offer to their children and grandchildren until they are on their death bed (see Vickers 1989:237). For example, an older woman of Huajoya could not walk any longer. Her husband did the gardening with the occasional assistance of his daughter. Nevertheless, the elderly woman was still a great cook and a potter. An older man with advanced tuberculosis frequently felt desire, curiously, for different types of meat that his son-in-law had brought home. Hence, he used to go out fishing or hunting rodents, even rainy days. There is one aspect of the economic link between son-in-law and parents-in-law that I would like to discuss here, because it has been given special attention in the literature that is the question of the provision of raw meat. In Chapter 7, I will describe meat prestations between community neighbours at length. I will argue there that the offering of raw meat can only be understood in relation to the next stage which entails the preparation and consumption of the piece of meat received. An Airo-Pai son-in-law is expected to provide his parents-in-law with meat. He may offer it personally to either of them, but generally he does so through his wife, who in turn gives the meat to her mother and mother-in-law. When the couple lives in another village, they are expected to visit the wife's parents frequently and bring them raw meat. However, this cannot be

interpreted as a unilateral obligation. As the Airo-Pai clearly state and act upon, the mother-in-law prepares the meat received and invites her daughter, her son-in-law and her grand-children to eat from her dish. The offering of raw meat is thus the first step

'Turner (1979) and Riviere (1984) have argued for the peoples of the Guianas and the Ge, respectively, that in the uxorilocal context fathers-in-law exercise economic control over their son in-law through the control that they have over their daughters (also see Rosengren on the Matsiguenga 1987). By contrast, the Airo-Pai are principally virilocal and conceive the economic tie between parents-in-law and adult children-in-law in terms of mutuality (also see Chapter 7). 129

to the sharing of a meal with the parent-in-law. To my knowledge, parents-in-law have little interest in raw meat per Se; they want the meat, but even more the company. If the son-in-law does not give meat to his mother-in-law this shows that he has no interest in visiting and eating her food, and this is what Afro-Pal strongly condemn. In other words, parents and parents-in-law aim at creating a social relationship with, not at controlling the work of their children and children-in-law. According to my informants, the best reward for the parents-in-law is the productive company of the young couple: to work side by side, to assist one another and to share raw and cooked food. Parents-in-law value their sons-in-law or daughters-in-law, and vice-versa, and they are therefore particularly careful to maintain a friendly relationship with one another. As years go by, the link between co-resident parent-in-law and child-inlaw tends to resemble that between parent and child. It became clear to me, however, that a tinge of prudence and suspicion - normally totally absent between parent and child never fades away between affines. This is visible, for instance, in the extreme attention they pay to not upseting one another. Although during my fieldwork there were no problems of this kind, relationships between affines may turn bitter and even violent. For instance, I was told of a few cases of fathers-in-law held responsible for causing the death of their son-in-law and daughter-in-law through sorcery. ci A dispute between Jose and Juana I now turn to a case-study that illustrates the sort of problems young couples confront and how the parents of either spouse assist them. The process of adaptation to married life is indeed difficult and it often fails. Hence, separations are most common during this early period of marriage. At 16 years old, José was married to Juana who was 24, and they had a baby girl. She had been divorced when she married him. I was told that they were not made to marry, but they united willingly with the consent of their parents. Their parents were all living in the community of Huajoyc. But José was living uxorilocaly in Juana's parents' house. José was hardworking and a good hunter. Nevertheless, he used to spend much time with the other single boys. One day he took his mosquito net and bedding back to his parents' house. He said that he could not stand any longer his wife's demands on him. His mother complained with a pitiful voice in this terms: my son does not know how to think yet. He is young and afraid of having to make an effort". During a working party, after several servings of manioc beer, Juana stated her own discontent publicly. She angrily complained that her baby was cold at night and would soon die without proper bedding. Surrounded by her female mates, she threatened to leave for the Putumayo basin and find a more suitable husband there. Juana's mother tried to calm her down and remained impartial. On the other hand, the boy's mother was 130

upset at the thought that her daughter-in-law might believe that she, his mother, had anything to do with her son's behaviour. She and her husband finally convinced their son to return his bedding to his in-laws' house. On the evening of their reunion, everybody kept off the river shore while Juana and José bathed together. The week after, the couple left for a hunting expedition. They returned with logs and other material, and they begun building their own house next to Juana's parents' house. Two factors precipitated José's need to give up his childish games. First, Juana had already been married and was eager to have her own things. Second, they had a child. When a woman marries young, a few years may pass before she has a baby. Thus, the adjustment to marriage may be longer and smoother. This incident reveals the importance of bedding in the marital link. As I explained, currently the Airo-Pai sleep under mosquito nets. These have in a certain way replaced the handmade hammocks - that is the male 'nests'. By taking his bedding away with him, José displayed his decision to separate from his wife. As we see, when a man offers a place in his hammock to a woman - or in its new western version, the mosquito net and sheets - this means that he is willing to live with her and fulfil his obligations towards her as a husband. If he does not, she may then find another 'nest' for herself. The incident should also be understood in relation to the residential context. José's parents were new comers in the community. They did not wish to return to the Putumayo basin where they came from because they disliked the influence of cocaine production there. They had kin in Huajoya, but they wanted also to forge friendly personal relationships with their new neighbours. When their son, José, returned to his parent's house with his bedding, his mother worried that his wife would think that she had instigated the problem as a means to make them move to her house. She knew that she was not in a position to win in the case of a community dispute. José's decision to return to his wife was influenced by his parents' 'advice' that stressed his attachment to his baby girl. The child would have remained with his wife in case of separation and José would have been unable to "look after" her any longer and as José said, he felt "sad" about separating from his child. Temporary breaks between young couples (like the one described above) are not exceptional. I realized that most people who now have been married for several years have gone through similar experiences: either she or he had gone back home, then been convinced to return so as to begin a second stage - usually a more intimate one - with his or her spouse. Adult men and women explained as they recalled their first years of marriage that they felt "fear-shame" (cadaye) and were uncomfortable with their spouse 131

and their parents-in-law9. Then, often after a temporary break-up, they explained that their relationship grew stronger. SECTION 3 THE DIVISION OF TASKS

The majority of livelihood tasks are gender specific (see table 1). Roughly, women harvest, prepare and serve drinks and meals, clean, make pottery, weave cotton, sew garments with western materials and care for children. Men cut down big trees, hunt, fish, weave with fibre, do the carpentry work, and make and take care of weapons. The cross-sex tasks are: gathering fruits, planting, weeding, and harvesting maize. I often heard people saying that: 'women know about womanly affairs, and men know about manly business'. On this supposition, both spouses expect each other to do his or her own work as autonomous persons without needing to be 'told to' or pressured. The daily organization of work between spouses usually goes smoothly, especially between long time married couples. Between newlyweds friction is more frequent, as the above case study illustrated. a The production and offering of durable objects 1)Uandicrafts Among the Airo-Pai, all adults are makers of handicrafts. Men and women have complementary crafts, and in the past the spouses manufactured the majority of objects and tools required for making a living. At present, many western utensils have become essential to their livelihood. Men weave the hammocks, the carrying baskets, the sieves for manioc flour and drinks, the manioc press, the baskets for the bread, the fans to keep the fire alive, the brooms for sweeping the floor, and the hair combs. They make all the wooden objects, like the wheel mill and the grinding table, the receptacle to smash manioc, the manioc grater, the cooking spoon, the mixing spoon for drinks, and the small knife for the bread. They also make all the wooden structure of the house and the canoes. In the past, men made the weapons: spears, traps and hooks made with fish bones. At present, men repair and transform their western hunting and fishing equipment. All the adult men can make

'Young women, for instance, said they felt lonely because their husbands used to spend the evenings drinking yage among men. 132

STANDAR CONFIGURATION FOR SEASONAL AND PERENNIAL PRODUCTION BY ACTIVITY AND ACCORDING TO SEX

I) COLLECTIVE ACTIVITuS a) Agriculture (workin2 narties) * Clearing forest plots (Nov.- Dec.) Cutting trees Cutting bushes Preparing and serving manioc beer

MEN WOMEN x x

x x x

* I'lanfing nmnioc (Mar. - Apr.) Opening a hole in the earth Planting the manioc stick in the hole Preparing and serving manioc beer

x

x x x x

Weeding Preparing and serving manioc beer

x

x x

x x x

x

b) Construction (working parties) * Jse building Cutting and transporting trees Cutting and transporting leaves and lianas Clearing bushes in the site of construction Building the house frame Weaving roof Preparing and serving maniac beer

x x

• Canoe construction (big canoes only) Preparing and serving maniac beer

x x x x

x x

c) Clearing communal space (working parties) x (like the football field, the patio surrounding the school, the port, and the paths leading to the gardens) Preparing and serving maniac beer

x

d) Hunting and fishing Peccary Carrying peccary meat back home Fish poisoning (dry season) Carrying fish back home

x x x x

(x) x x

e) Sharnanic sessions

x

133



x

(x)

2) CONJUGAL IJN1T a) Agriculture * Planting: (Feb. - April) Corn Plantain Fruits(

MEN WOMEN x x (x)

*wdjng

x (x) x x

* Harvesting: Corn (Dec. & Aug.) Plantain and fruits (perenial) Manioc (pereial)

x x

b) Hunting and fishing Hunting

x x x

x x x

Fishing

Carrying meat back home Butchering small game Butchering big game Skin



(x) (x) x x

x

x

x

x x

x x

c) Gathering d) Preparing food Boiled recipes Baking Smoking meat Roasting fariM

x (x)

x

e) House keeping Sweeping the floor Washing crockery Washing clothes Maintaining the patio Making and fetching fire wood

x x

x x x (x) (x)

f) Child-care

(x)

x

(I)

g) Manufacture Plaiting Twining fibres Weaving with fibres Making baskets Wood work Spining and weaving cotton Pottery Making bead necklaces and crowns

x x x x x x 134



(x)

x x x

3) SMALL GROUPS



MEN

a) Harvesting (occasional)

WOMEN x

b) Gathering (seasonal) (fruits, nuts, vines and other useful products) c) Hunting (occasional) Fishing (occasional) d) Sewing and washina clothes

x

x

x

x (x) x

135

handicrafts, but some men are specialists. The smaller objects can be made by one single man using accessible local materials, but houses are constructed communally. The men build while the women clean the area and "help" to weave the roof. Women make different sizes of cooking pots, serving pots, jars, bread pans, manioc flour pans and cylindric feet to support the cooking pot over the fire. All the women can make pottery. Generally, a woman prepares her own clay and shapes, paints and cooks her own pots. The quality of the pottery varies greatly from woman to woman, and some of them are very fine. Women also spin and weave cotton to make bracelets to be worn by their husbands and bands to wrap around newborns, although such crafts are currently being abandoned. At present, Airo-Pai women sew garments for themselves, their children and their husbands. The material is obtained from the river traders'°. The important point is that a man is expected to offer many handicrafts to his wife: hammocks, baskets and food processing tools; whereas a woman is supposed to offer him cotton bracelets only11 . A woman owns personally the objects given to her by her husband and she is very proud of them because they are a tangible sign of his "loving desire" (yëye) for her. I was often told by adult men and women that: "a good husband knows how to make objects, he gives his wife everything". I learnt that one could tell that a man really "loved" his wife if she had a new hammock, several fans, sieves and carrying baskets of her own. A neglected woman does not remain with her husband for long. 2) Western goods At present, the people of Huajoya trade local products for industrial goods from the boat traders (see Chapter 1). Most of the production for trade and the trading transactions

10

Sewing is probably one of a woman's greater pleasures, especially sewing baby garments that she constantly refashions again and again. Women gather for sewing side by side and chatting during hours in the afternoon and they are extremely proud of their own typical hand-sewn garments. "A man is not supposed to offer all of his products to his wife. He may keep some for himself, he may trade with them or offer them to another person. Women may also offer to or exchange some things with visitors from other communities. For instance, a visiting man may make a bread basket for the female head of the house where he is staying, especially if she falls into the category of 'older sister'. The hand-sewn clothes made by a woman with western material are not really offered to her husband, because the materials used in it belong to him already. When a man wants to have a new garment, he obtains the material from the river traders and asks his wife to sew it for him. 136

are carried out by the men, and women expect their husbands to provide them with western goods although they may also trade for minor things. The western goods most frequently acquired are: hunting/fishing materials, knives, cloth and thread, aluminium crockery, salt, kerosene, soap, matches, pens and paper, and beauty accessories. Although many of these products are essential to the Airo-Pai life, people invest relatively little time and effort in the production of items for trade. During the period of my fieldwork, chickens and eggs were the sole products to be specifically produced for trade. Each chicken is owned individually by a man, a woman, or a child. The money or the item - obtained in exchange for the chicken belongs to the owner of the chicken. Occasionally, a man may make a hammock or a canoe or go hunting with the specific purpose of trading with these products. From the daily hunt, only the skin is used for trading whereas the meat is for their own consumption. Very occasionally, women bake bread to sell to the Quichua people on a trip to the Napo River. Crops are traded only under special request from the river traders, and on the condition that the married couple has enough for itself until the next harvest. It became clear to me that the Airo-Pai desire western goods, but they are not ready to deprive themselves and their children of eating well in order to obtain them. Western products, like hand-made objects, are always individually owned. Women tend to offer presents of western goods to their children rather than to their husbands. While men tend to - and are expected to - offer manufactured objects to their wives, who then may distribute the gifts among her children. For instance, when a man offers cloth to his wife, she may sew something for herself or for one of her children, as she decides. 3)A husband's generosity

It is remarkable that concerning both handmade and western objects a husband gives and is expected to give - more to his wife than she gives to him. Without major difficulty, a woman could make the majority of these handicrafts by herself. The fibre crafting techniques are simple and most women know them, just from watching the men around them. To my knowledge, there are no sanctions against a woman doing a man's work. The point is that a woman expects her husband to offer her these objects because she regards this to be sign of his love. It is also his responsibility. The generosity of a husband is understood to be vital to the harmony of the couple and the community at large. With astonishing clarity, an older man depicted to me the following scenario: Supposing it were the case that a woman lacked some tool, a sieve. She may ask her female neighbour whether she could lend her one. This puts the neighbour in a delicate 137

position. She may feel compelled to oblige because she wants to avoid being criticized for stinginess. Supposing that the neighbour does oblige. Then other problems may appear. The woman may damage the sieve borrowed. This is not unusual given the materials, in which case the owner would be angered. From all this, only bad feeling and disputes could emerge. Therefore: it is best for a man to provide his wife with all that she needs. in my own experience, women do borrow things from one another, but preferably from a mother, a daughter or a sibling. In addition, the women who share a house use each other's cooking tools quite freely but they openly prefer to use their own things. When

a woman lacks handmade tools, it means that her husband neglects her and her neighbours may then gossip about them. In fact, a woman may borrow from her neighbours as a means of pressuring her husband. For instance, one day a female neighbour came to the house where I was staying and complained that her own baskets were so old they were useless. Some days later, her husband made a new basket for her. Men are thus responsible for the manufacture of basic crockery and house equipment. Hence, they are expected to provide a furnished house for their wives. One could ask if this could this be interpreted as male 'control' over the material means of female production? Meillassoux's (1981:21) argues that the institution of marriage was imposed upon women by men as the means through which men constrained women to gain control over both the means of reproduction and labour. This argument does not apply here because the Airo-Pai think of marriage as the union of male and female capabilities of production and reproduction, and not as the control of one gender by the other. Airo-Pai women, for instance, monopolize the practical and ritual knowledge required to produce the fundamental female tools: the cooking pots. A woman keeps her pots for herself (she may occasionally offer them to or exchange them with another woman). Upon marriage, a woman settles beside her husband in his hammock and she combines her pots with his sieves so as to prepare the food to be eaten by both and by their children, In marriage, man and woman unite their respective technologies of production and reproduction. Therefore, cooking and procreation are not just female duties because men must also contribute to them. As the male womb (the hammock) combines with the female womb (the pot) in order to achieve sexual reproduction (see Chapter 3), so the male and female technologies combine in order to achieve the transformation of raw and dangerous

138

materials into edible and nutritious food12. b) Reciprocity of services between spouses The image emerging from this pattern of offerings of objects between spouses presents a clear bias in favour of women since they receive more than what they give away. Here I show that the overall picture of the services performed by husband and wife is one of reciprocity and complementarity. I discuss Afro-Pal understandings of the dynamism that animates such a reciprocity of services. Spouses are not interested in compensating for the past services of the other spouse in order to achieve an even - but static - point. Rather, they aim at propelling forwards the action of the other and hence to keep in motion the progression of livelihood. Gow's analysis of Piro gender relationship in terms of "the ability of adults to satisfy the gender-specific desires of their spouses" (1991:120) is appropriate for describing the internal dynamics of Airo-Pai couples. As I will show, in this network of desires and motivations, children are one of the primary reasons for parents to work and an indirect means for one spouse to express his or her own wishes to the other spouse. Airo-Pai rhetoric supports such a conclusion. During my fieldwork I repeatedly heard people saying things like the following: "You want to eat meat? Then serve a vegetable drink to your husband at dawn. With a full stomach he would happily go off to the jungle", or" How could your wife prepare a nice plantain drink for you if you do not make the appropriate sieve for her to use?". It became clear to me that the day-to--day activities of husband and wife are closely tied together and it is impossible for one spouse to carry out his or her work without the other spouse having done his or her own part. This suggests a processual form of reciprocity based on the image of a 'see-saw': the action of one spouse enables and directs the other spouse to act in turn, and thus to go one step forward in the creation of livelihood. Furthermore, the extent to which a spouse's action fulfils the culturally constructed desires of his or her mate is also regarded as a concrete sign of love. A sieve offered to a wife, for instance, is meaningful in several ways. First, it enables the wife to prepare the many specialities of Afro-Pal

'2For comparison see the innovative analysis of C. Hugh-Jones (1979) of Barasana male and female cooking tools. This author characterizes Barasana gender relations as a 'hierarchical complementarity'. Also see Guss's analysis (1989:81) of the duty of Yecuana men to provide fibre-woven objects to their wives. As I will show, the Afro-Pal play down all hierarchical differences between spouses. 139

cuisine. Second, it is an invitation to - even an unspoken demand - to produce this good food by using the sieve. Third, it fulfils the culturally marked desire of all Airo-Pai wives to be provided fibre technology by their husbands. His action demonstrates to her that he wants her to cook food for the two of them and their children. It is thus a mute but vivid manifestation of both his attachment to and expectations of her. Having received the sieve, it is then the wife's turn to play her part. The food that she may prepare and serve to her husband would similarly enable and motivate him to work, at the same time satisfying his desire for her food. The failure to respond to the action of the other spouse would be a sign of loss of interest in their marriage. Should that spouse persist in the neglect of the other, the couple would eventually separate. The complementary relationship between Afro-Pal spouses echoes the vivid description by Thomas of the Pemon view that man's work supports woman's work and vice-versa "ad infinitum", and that neither can top the other (1982:91-92). The succession of husband-wife tasks follows a temporal order about which Airo-Pai are explicit (for instance in the marital advise transcribed above). The husband's opening of the garden enables his wife to harvest crops. The offering of fibre and wooden crockery by the husband enables his wife top vegetable drinks and bread. The offering by her of this drink to her husband enables him to go off hunting. The offering of meat by him to his wife enables her to cook a meat dish that eaten together with the bread and the drink constitute the typical Airo-Pai meal. As we will see in the following chapters, this process is in fact far more complex, because the other members of the community take part during each of the steps. For the Airo-Pai, the actions of a spouse are powerful messages to which a person should ideally respond spontaneously as an autonomous person. In reality, as one might expect, the spouses are not always prompt in fulfilling their duties and satisfying the desires of the other, especially when they are young. Their parents normally remind them of their obligations in sufficient time to prevent disaster. For instance one day I heard a mother reprimanding her newly married daughter because the girl was not "looking after" her husband. The girl had not prepared her own drinks. She went to her mother's house and asked for some of her drink to feed her young husband who was going hunting. The mother gave her the drink, but she warned her in these terms: "Did he give you a basket for you to do nothing with it? You ought to think well". Older couples may resort to stronger tactics, to nagging or driving their mates into a corner. For instance, displaying the spouse's laziness in public is a good way to force him or her to work, since an Afro140

PM

always minds a neighbour commenting that he or she "js not living wells . The

nagging patterns normally involve the couple's children. An examination of this point reveals that, although the mutual relations between the spouses has a vitality of its own (as described above), the strongest motivation to work comes from the desire to provide for one's children. To be sure, if there is anything an Airo-Pai cannot bear, it is the knowledge that a young child is unhappy. A conventional way of relating between adults is thus through the needs and desires of their children. 1)Communicating through one's children

Women are particularly good at influencing their husbands through their children, although men may also play the game. There is a whole spectrum of possibilities through which children may convey their parent's messages to one another. At one end of this spectrum there are cheerful joking statements. For instance, a woman may move her baby's arms and speaking in baby's voice say: "I want a new shelf over the hearth". In the middle point, we find the use of children as emissaries. For example, a woman may call her four year old child apart and say: "Tell your father that you want to eat such or such species of fish". The child usually springs to his father to tell him that he wants the fish. At the other extreme, there are shrieking of infants. In this case the characteristic reaction from both the mother and father is to adopt a high-pitched voice and complain about the pitiful state of the child, whatever this may be. A common pattern relates to meat. When a child cries without apparent reason, the general consensus is that he/she is "hungry" (ajhueohuë: wake-up to eat), meaning that he/she "wants to eat meat". To my astonishment, I realized that Afro-Pal children (from three to seven years old) do cry for meat. These are the rare occasions when they may sob for hours without consolation. Needless to say, nothing could motivate a man to go off hunting more than his child's crying, even to brave the worst weather conditions, if necessary13.

On one occasion, a man went hunting during four consecutive rainy days to calm his daughter's anxiety, only to return in the evening empty handed, soaked and exhausted. 141

SECTION 4: CONJUGAL TOGETHR?ESS Unlike those lowland groups which promote sexual antagonism' 4, the Airo-Pai foster intimacy between husband and wife and a low level of quarrelsome behaviour. They stress that the spouses should not be separated for too long and that they should spend time together at home and in their gardens. Indeed, if the separation is too long from the point of view of one spouse - either husband or wife - either one or both may find a new partner and "throw away" the other, as the Airo-Pai put it. Explicit accent is put on the following points: spouses should eat and bath together, and they should talk to and assist one another. a) Eating from the same plate According to my informants, spouses should eat from the same dish on a daily basis because they should enjoy together the result of their work. They thus satisfy together the desire for the food their complementary efforts produced. As I show in the next chapter, eating from the same plate is the epitome of conviviality and mutual trust. The meal is always a joyful and exciting social event. As Airo-Pai put it, eating together "makes people rejoice" and those who eat together are expected to grow fonder of one another. In addition, food is said to affect the constitution of the person who eats it. As I have explained in the last chapter, the Airo-Pai understand that properties and illnesses may be passed on to from one individual to the others through food, and especially through the food eaten from one plate. And, people who eat together make themselves similar to one another. That commensality is a crucial feature of marriage and sexuality in Amazonia has often been noted in the literature (see Da Matta 1979, Crocker 1985:111). As Crocker has pointed out for the Bororo, by eating the same food, spouses solidify the tie between them and may even regard themselves to be closer to one another both physically and emotionally than to their respective kin. b) Bathing together Sporadically - once a week- the married couple bathes on the shores of the village stream so to be seen by their neighbours. Although they rarely touch one another, the couple's privacy is nevertheless strictly respected. These public marital baths relate to

'4See for instance, Gregor (1977) on the Mehinaku. 142

practices of reconciliation, for the spouses always bathe together after resolving a disagreement between them. The seriousness of these baths contrasts with the playful ones that men and women take on a daily basis, by themselves or in the company of same-sex mates. In indigenous conception, bathing is a means of life renewal. Usually, upon bathing people say "cuyahuajeyr, which can be glossed as 'I bath and breath anew'. Bathing is thus a means of building up the unity of the couple by 'washing away' the conificts and bad feelings between the spouses. Both eating and bathing together are linkedtodesire, vitality,andtothegrowthofasharedlife. ci Assisting one another On a daily basis, the spouses coordinate their activities and adapt their work to the requirements of each other. Although most tasks are gender specific, husband and wife often assist one another in an informal way. As the Airo-Pai put it, they "help" one another. For example, a woman says that she "helps" her husband twisting fibre for the hammocks and a man says that he "helps" his wife weeding the patio around the house. By contrast, when a man spins his fibre he says "my spinning" and when a woman cleans the patio she says "my weeding". The point is that the bestowal of assistance between spouses is not considered a duty but is an expression of affection. In general adult persons ask for, or offer to bestow assistance only when they consider it necessary. For instance, spouses "help" each other when one of them is unable to work. A woman may hunt small game (like agouties) and catch fish nearby her garden when her husband is ill or temporarily absent. A man would cook, serve and keep the house tidy when his wife is ill, menstruating or bleeding after birth. Also, assistance may be required, or spontaneously offered, when the work to be finished within a certain limit of time is too much for the other spouse. Otherwise, the spouses prefer to carry out their work autonomously (although they always enjoy having company for chatting) and they are generally proud of their personal working skills. d) Talking to one another 1)Avoiding making the other spouse 'angry' Often people comment that spouses "should talk to one another". As I have already

'5The couple also bathes after having sexual intercourse, but these baths are private and taken outside the reaches of the village. 143

(fig. 18) Husband and wife weaving leaves for the roof of their new house L________________

-L f

-- --

-

_I_I

(fig. 19) Mother and daughter preparing manioc beer

144

-

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indicated, this is a common theme of the Afro-Pal understanding of peaceful interpersonal relationships. Whenever it is proposed that a married person do something - a daily matter or a special one - he, or she, usually replies that he must consult his spouse before doing it. Failure to communicate with one's spouse is understood to make this spouse 'angry' at the other. I realized that both husband and wife were extremely careful to avoid 'angering' one another. Airo-Pai are explicit that spouses should communicate their plans to one another, solve their problems through conversations, and take decisions together. At the very least, spouses should know about the other spouse's intentions for action. They may not necessarily agree on everything. Several times, as I had the opportunity to witness, one of the spouses may go ahead with his, or her, own ideas, knowing that the other one is not happy about it. Whether such difference of opinions entails future disputes or not depends on the gravity of the case. What is a major offense even concerning minor decisions is to keep silence, because hidden intentions are equated with evil intentions". Mutual communication allows the spouses to co-ordinate their daily activities. This does not mean that they should tell one another what to do. On the contrary, the spouses organize their daily plans like two complementary and autonomous persons, each knowing his or her own responsibilities. Each spouse holds domestic authority concerning his or her own activities. As Thomas (1982:237) remarks about the Pemon "it is the uniformity of the practice of extending autonomy as a prerogative of the other which enables it to work". The same argument applies to the Airo-Pai for whom the solid partnership between husband and wife is based on the mutual trust that each spouse should have with the other. When one spouse is strongly opposed to the other's plans, the complaint is usually phrased in terms of "stinginess"(useye). For instance, an older man explained that his wife was "stingy with him" because she was against him travelling to the Nape River. Husband and wife may put pressure on each other indirectly by involving their neighbours. Disagreements may lead to quarrels, but wife beating is very rare and it always entails serious consequences, like separation 17. During my fieldwork,

"The only case for which people affirmed that it was better to keep quiet, was when somebody knew who had murdered a kinsman. It is better not to mention it, because if the children or brothers of the murdered person know they would feel 'angry' and obliged to seek revenge, causing even more death. 17j was

told of a dramatic case in the community of Bellavista of a woman with three children who was beaten on the head by her husband. As a result she committed suicide 145

there were no incidents of marital violence. 1)The special hours before dawn Every day before dawn, married couples talk to one another for several hours. Nowadays, the couple sleeps under the same mosquito net together with their younger children. They go to bed at approximately nine at night. They wake up at two in the morning, sometimes as early as midnight, sometimes later. Normally, the husband wakes up first. He lights a kerosene torch, prepares a drink of yo'co (paulliania), and sits by the torch to twist fibre thread for the hammocks. His wife and his older children may join him an hour later or so. As I have shown in Chapter 3 and 4, the Airo-Pai define the twisting of fibre as a man's job, however a woman normally "helps" her husband with this time-consuming task. Waking up before dawn is a routine in the lives of every AfroPal adult man. They always keep a reserve of fibre to twist for this time and feel restless when they have nothing to do with their hands. When both spouses are awake and working side-by-side, they speak in a whisper and also have long moments of silence. They tell each other their dreams and coordinate the action for the day. They tell anecdotes, stories of past events, myths, and they give 'advice' to their children. The hours spent daily around the torch are a privileged time for intimacy. When more than one couple share the same house, each couple and its children gather around one torch separate from the others. Older widows and widowers (and often the anthropologist) normally remain on their own. When the sun begins to rise, people have a bath, husband and wife separately. Men beat the water noisily and call up to the others "let's go bathing", while women make just one jump in the water and get out quickly. Then neighbours - men and women- visit each other's houses. They tell their dreams to one another and deliberate on their plans for the day. Around seven in the morning, the wife calls the members of her house for breakfast: a reheated meat

dish, when it is available and a warm sweet plantain soup1. e) Sexual partnership In Chapter 3,1 have analyzed conceptions of gender and sexual reproduction in relation to the indigenous exegesis of shamanic analogies. As I argued there, Airo-Pai understand

by drinking fish poison. describe here a day in which the husbands do not go hunting and stay in the community for breakfast. When they go hunting, men leave at dawn. 146

that both father and mother should take an active part in the process of pregnancy and birth. I have already described indigenous ideas of the male and female 'nests' (the womb) and the bodily substances necessary for producing the foetus' body. Here, I focus on Airo-Pai considerations about correct sexual partnership. It should be noted that although the men and women may be quite happy to crack sexual jokes, they are nevertheless extremely reserved about personal experiences, at least with the anthropologist. I gathered that actual sexual relations are to them quite a serious matter, and one in which men have to be particularly careful because they are held responsible for the well-being of their female partner and their children. The point stressed by both men and women was that "making it" too often is bad for the woman because it would cause her to lose weight. I am uncertain whether by "making it" (nefle) they refer to sexual intercourse or more particularly to ejaculation. To be sure, repeated pregnancies are considered to cause weight-loss and even death, but it seems that sexual intercourse may also be regarded as having a debilitating effect on women. As the Afro-Pal express it, a man who "knows how to take care of his wife does not make it too much". Excessive sexual activity, is also said to render men 'lazy' and diminish their hunting skills leading them to miss all their shots (see Vickers 1989:223 and Crocker 1985:61 for the Bororo). The Airo-Pai say that the ideal number of children is three and that a period of four years should be left between pregnancies. As they put it, a child should have all his teeth and be able to eat on its own before his mother should breast feed another child. In reality, most couples respect this ideal of family planning19. In cases of unwanted pregnancy, the man is blamed for it. The following case is illustrative: Mariana and Eduardo had a baby girl of eight months when she announced to her mother that she was pregnant again. She was openly upset at her husband, and complained in a pitiful voice that her baby was now going to die because her milk was "spoiled" by the pregnancy. Eduardo's mother, desolated, repeated the typical tune: "my son does not know how to think", and wept about her grand-daughter. Interestingly, nobody blamed Mariana for it. Her sister who was also breast-feeding offered to feed her niece until the baby could eat other foods. Pregnancy is acknowledged around the third month when it shows a little and the woman's appetite is "spoiled". From that moment onwards, the woman, her husband and young children eat in separate crockery from the others lest the pains of pregnancy should be passed on to them, particularly to the elderly and the sick. Healthy people are

'9At present they are being pushed by the catholic missionaries to have more children in order to increase the number of the Airo-Pai population. 147

considered not to be affected. The woman may cook, but only healthy people may eat her food. So she prepares food irregularly and the pregnant 'couple' is fed preferably by her sisters and mother. There is no room here to describe all the numerous restrictions to be respected by a woman and her husband during pregnancy, birth and after the birth. Dietary and post-partum restrictions among the Afro-Pal stress the existence of moral and physical bonds between parents and child20. Birth takes place at the edge of the garden and the forest. The woman goes on her own (when experienced) or with her mother (or another knowledgeable woman), while her husband should rest at home. No man would dare watch the birth for fear-shame of 'contamination' with birth blood. The after-birth is buried on the place of birth. During the post-partum bleeding, the woman remains in a hut in her garden accompanied by other women. During this time, her husband should provide her with 'safe' meat, that is larvae (calandra palmarwn) and small fish (astronotus ocellatus). She returns home when the bleeding has stopped and she has

washed up as for her menses (see Chapter 4). The couple stops observing most of the the post-partum restrictions after three vomiting sessions when the baby's umbilical cord falls. Both parents, their respective parents, siblings and all the people who shared their house, take part in these early morning vomiting sessions. The vomiting is induced with the root of mafiapë (unidentified) It is said to clean their stomachs from the "dirtiness" accumulated during the pregnancy. As we see, husband and wife act together throughout the whole process of procreation and they involve their neighbours in the process. SECTION 5 DISAPPROVED BEHAVIOUR

I have already described the Airo-Pai notion of "craziness" (see Chapter 4). Although this concept is applicable to both men and women in the sense that the same moral values are attached to both of them, the Afro-Pal emphasize certain failings for men and others for women. Men are particularly warned against attempting to control their women whereas women are advised against wandering behaviour. They conceive of these two negative attributes as two gendered sides of the same coin: lack of self-discipline. For the Airo-Pai, male attempts to control women are considered to have the opposite effect of

°'rhe practice of couvade is one of the most debated topics in Amazonia. See for instance, Rivière (1974:423-35) and Crocker (1985:67). Among the Afro-Pal the father is not only responsible for the well-being of the baby but also for the symbolic manufacture of the male aspect of the womb that is the hammock. 148

what anthropologists have normally assumed. Far from obtaining female submissiveness, male watchfulness is understood to generate female wandering. Harmony for the couple, and the community, is only possible when husband and wife do not indulge in such negative behaviour. a) The watchful husband The Airo-Pai consider men to be easily inclined to be too watchful over their women and they strongly disapprove of this. Young men are repeatedly warned against the dangers of jealousy. For instance, a man told me that his father used to advise him in this terms: "Young man, when you accompany a woman do not make her angry. Do not watch her. When she is married, a woman does not leave for other places. You remain together. She had a good upbringing and you as well. She knows how to think when she has her husband. If you watch her, she will get tired of you. She will not take care of you any more. She will tell everybody that you are a bad person. This is why your heart should think straight". Watchfulness is expressed in terms of 'stinginess'. A watchful man is said: nomione gceye, which can be translated as "stingy with his woman". As this piece of 'advice' indicates, a men is exhorted not to attempt to control his wife's movements for he should trust her because she has being brought-up to be self-disciplined. b) The wandering wife Women are thought of as easily inclined to neglect their husbands and wander around (especially when their husbands leave for the forest). For this reason, mothers give their daughters recommendations like this one: "You want to marry. When you live together with a man, he wants to eat bread. But is he going to remain at home? Early he goes out to the forest. This is why you should prepare a drink so that he may leave and search for meat. When he goes, wait for him. 'When is my husband coming back?' Wait for him at home. When he arrives, give him a drink and prepare the meat he has brought. Your heart will be rejoicing. In this way you will live well. If your husband watches you because you are seeing other people, he will make you angry as well. You will not want him any more. You will not look after him. People will say 'that woman is living badly'. This is how I have heard my grand-parents speak". As we see both spouses are exhorted to be self-controlled and to rely on the selfcontrol of their partner. Male watchfulness and female wandering are conceived as the 149

twin faces of the lack of 'thinking' capabilities that leads to the same outcome: the separation of the married pair. The watchful behaviour of a man irritates his wife, who consequently stops 'taking care' of him, and the wandering behaviour of a woman exasperates her husband, who then reacts with jealousy. This piece of advice aims to make the marriage last, by underlining the sensitive points which might cause a rupture. c) Personal autonomy and conjugal harmony Previous studies of Amazonian peoples tend to emphasize the fact that female wandering is strongly condemned (as we have seen, the Airo-Pai explicitly state that women should remain at home) but little attention has been paid to the equivalent constraints that are imposed on men21. As I have shown here, the Airo-Pai understand the link between husband and wife is dynamic and reciprocal. There is no place for unilateral 'dominance' simply because husband and wife are conceived as one dynamic unit constituted by two autonomous individuals. In case of marital discord, the parents of the spouses also stress the mutual influence of spouses on each other. An older man told me that his father used to advise him with these words: "Do not be angry. If you quarrel, how could you continue to live together? How do you think? Now, you say that your wife is behaving wrong. Why should you scold her? Maybe, you are causing her to act wrong. You may not be attending her well. This may be why she behaves in that way. You should think well". Similar advice is given to young women. Conjugal relations among the Airo-Pai are thus not conceived in terms of 'dominance' or 'control' the other spouse, but rather it is thought of in terms of '1f-control' because it is only through personal control that harmonious relationships are understood to be achieved. To be sure, Airo-Pai men do worry about whether their wives might

21See Overing (1986) for a critique of anthropological theories which stress the cultural constraints imposed upon women and do not examine similar constraints imposed upon men. 150

choose to leave them. This preocupation is justified because - in spite of the strong moral education - some women do leave their husbands who in turn may attempt to murder their rivals if blinded with jealousy. Male fights over women are rare in daily life but they may occur during drinking parties (I did not see any cases during my fieldwork). In addition, in cases of separation young children normally stay with their mother and if she dies they would normally remain with their mother's brother. Thus, by losing his wife, a man may also lose his children. While Afro-Pal men may compete over women it is just as true that women may compete over menu. But male jealousy and control are not organizing principles of conjugal life. On the contrary, jealousy and control entail the rupture of marriage. What fosters long lasting marriages are the values of personal autonomy, mutual trust and co-operation, and the practice of such values. As we have seen, the Airo-Pai assert that "good" spouses behave towards another simultaneously as both parent and child. They are equally expected to "look after", respect and be cooperative with one another. SECTION : GENDER VALUES AND BRIDESERVICE

As mentioned, a period of brideservice traditionally preceded the wedding feast, and thezfore in the classification drawn by Coffier and Rosaldo (1981:275) the Airo-Pai may be considered a 'brideservice society'. However, the cultural values that these authors attach to the economy of 'bndeservice' are alien to the Afro-Pal. These authors state that bndescrvice societies are based upon a "gender asymmetry" due to the fact that men are associated with the "ability to order, energize and nurture both social and natural worlds" (1981:276) and women are "sexual beings". As a consequence marriage is highly desired In the shamanic repertoire the lover who takes a woman away is represented by the y&yE bird (unidentified). Here as well, the Afro-Pal base their symbolism on an attentive

observation of the customs of the oropendola bird. In the daily dramas of the forest, the yEiye bird is a predator that chases the oropendolas away and takes possession of their nests. Male rivalry over women also plays an important role in mythology (see Cipolletti 1988:49). The following case convinced me that Airo-Pal women are not the passive objects of male marriage exchanges. An older man in Huajoya explained to me that he had been married six times but that all his wives had left him. I then learnt from the other men and women of the village that in fact it was his sister in-law (married to his older brother) who had repeatedly chased his wives away because she was his lover (with the consent of her husband). For years, the two brothers and she were a 'mènage a trois' and she only allowed her own younger sister to be a second lover to her brother-inlaw (her sister was married to another man). 151

by men who require it so as to obtain "equal" status among men, whereas "women do not perceive themselves as needing husbands" (1981:284) or fathers for their children because they prefer to have "lovers". These authors claim that it is men who articulate the social and establish claims to marriage "not by providing for wives and children", but, rather by distributing produce to senior in-laws, so as to win support from those who most influence wives (1981:285). The first point to emerge from the Airo-Pai data is that marriage is not arranged only by men but by both parents of the bride and the groom (see Chapter 2). These two sets ofparentsunitetheireffortssoastocreateanewmarriedcoupleandtomakethembear their grandchildren. Young people - both boys and girls - are reluctant to marry and they both say that they feel cadaye ("fear-shame") at the thought of getting married. Contrary to what Collier and Rosaldo argue, the Airo-Pai put great emphasis on motherhood, but they do not value feminine reproductive powers per se because they attach fertility to the union of both the male and the female reproductive capabilities and not to the female's alone. Physical and social motherhood and fatherhood are equally important and moreover, the one cannot exist without the other. Parenthood and 'raising' is an Airo-Pai 'obsession' to the point of shaping all aspects of the 'good life' in the community. As we have seen, marital companionship is phrased in terms of a double parenting tie. Although Collier and Rosaldo note that in brideservice societies marriage is a "gradual process, through which both young women and their kinsfolk come to find themselves 'accustomed to"(ibid:286), these authors do not consider the possibility of the period of brideservice being in fact a time of learning for the young people on how to behave as a married couple, and that their parents and parents-in-law have the responsibility for 'creating' this new couple. Rather, these authors state that brideservice is a means to "calm recalcitrant and 'angry' in-laws" as a compensation for sleeping with their daughter or sister. Clearly, this argument is inappropriate in the Airo-Pai case. Marriage among the Airo-Pai is indeed a process and the marital tie endures in as much as both spouses keep the process of livelihood in motion with their work. As I showed above the reciprocity of services between the spouses is fed by the impact that the actions of one spouse is understood to have on the other. With their actions, the spouses learn to enable and motivate one another to work and in so doing they satisfy the culturally specific desires of the other. Thus, the most efficient way to demand something from one's spouse is to prove to him or her that one cares. Where the will to provide for 152

one's spouse may fail, the love for one's children is always a powerful motive to infuse a new energy into the dynamics of the marital companionship. A long-term relationship could in no way be established through male control because when a man attempts to control his wife, this means that their marriage is seriously in danger.

153

154

CHAPTER 6: THE VEGETABLE FOOD CYCLE This chapter explores what may be called the vegetable food cycle of the Airo-Pai economy. By this I mean the four-step process of: 1) horticultural production, 2) culinary preparation, 3) distribution and 4) consumption of vegetable products. As I will show here, the cycle as a whole from cultivation to consumption must be studied in order to grasp the Airo-Pai understanding and enactment of communal co-operation and food sharing. Following recent theoretical developments by Fiernup-Riordhan (1983), Gregory (1982), Strathern (1988), and Gow (1991) I will argue that livelihood should be viewed as the construction of gender identity and the production of people, especially children. I will use ideas from these theoretical frameworks to tackle the debate on individualism and collectivism in Amazonia (see Rivière 1984; Overing 1992a) and to understand the cultural and social meaning of food production. My aim will be to describe how the AfroPal community might specifically be a force of production - of food and people - and how personal autonomy in work fits with the ties of community. For this purpose, I will describe how vegetable stuff is attached to individuals at different stages of the vegetable food cycle. It will be argued that communally produced crops are personally owned so as to be personally shared out after having been personally transformed for eating. The abilities both to prepare and offer cooked food are constitutive of the female moral person, a social concept that includes the productive aspects of personhood. Cooked food is understood to be the product of the person, and is conceived of as containing aspects of the self. It is through the mutual inter-female prestations of cooked food that co-eating and the sharing of substance are organized within the settlement, a process through which solidarity between co-residents is continuously created and played out. In section 1, I will look at indigenous gardening techniques and the meaning of the production of plants and the appropriation of crops for human consumption. It will be shown that among the Airo-Pai, gardening is conceived of as the raising of vegetable 'children' (the plants) which enables them to bear a new generation (the yields) that will be food for people. Production is intrinsically linked to reproduction because it is seen as enabling the growth of 'children' among both plants and humankind. I then move in section 2 to the analysis of the organization of communal working parties and the AfroPal notion of the harvest. The preparation and offering of drink and bread is described in section 3. In section 4, I examine the social logic underlying the mutual inter-female 155

giving of bread. The discussion of communal food sharing patterns will be continued in the next chapter where I will describe the circulation of raw and cooked meat and the gender ordering of consumption in the daily meals. SECTION 1: ThE BEALJnFUL LAND The Airo-Pai say that their gardens (sb) are "beautiful land" (deo yeja) which are clean and tidy. They frequently express how comforting it is to walk by the gardens and see the stems "growing beautifully". The Airo-Pai of Peru do not suffer the land pressure resulting from the invasion by colonists found in the Ecuadorian and Colombian sides (Vickers 1989:67-75). Good land for cultivation is thus widely available, although the area has many swamps unsuitable for horticulture. In the Putumayo basin, local land shortage has however risen as a result of the recent settling process of the communities motivated by the need for a school. For instance, the community of Bellavista on the Yubineto river (which has occupied the same place since 1975) experiences serious land problems. Its inhabitants are torn between the desire to remain close to the school building (and thus having to walk long distances to their gardens and shorten the period of fallow) or establishing a new settlement where cultivatable land would be of easy access. Although many have decided to leave, yet others arrive. As mentioned, within Airo-Pai territory inter-communal mobility is high both because of short term visiting and longer term residential changes. a) The horticultural cycle The Airo-Pai method of slash-and-burn shifting cultivation has been analyzed by Vickers (1989:77-104), Hold & Gasché (1982) and Casanova (1975). Here I will only present its general features. The basic Airo-Pai calendar distinguishes three periods that do not cover the whole year: 1) the 'summer' from December to March (Omtecahu1); 2) the rainy season from March to July (ocotecahul); and 3) in August a short dry and sunny period (cg.cotecahue: caterpillars' season (cicadidae)). This division reflects the crucial steps of the horticultural cycle: slashing and burning the plot in the 'summer', planting all sorts of crops before the rainy season, and a second

156

planting of corn in a fallow plot in August1. Establishing a new garden begins in November with the selection of a suitable place. The final allocation of the land to each married couple is agreed upon during conversations mediated by the community headman. The size of the plots varies according to the amount of food needed by the conjugal unit and the quality of the soil (the average garden size for a couple with young children is 50 square meters). By December, the forest plots are slashed down during communal working parties (see below). Each married couple organizes its own working party and invites the other members of the community to take part in them. Men fell the trees of the primeval forest with axes while the women cut down the brushwood and liana with the bush-knife. The trees are left to dry for some days and then burned. The leaves and small branches are reduced to ashes whereas the chared tree trunks remain. The planting of many sorts of crops (see table 1) begins in the following days and continues until the end of March. Manioc, corn and plantains predominate in the gardens. Whereas manioc is planted communally, the other crops are planted by the conjugal unit on its own. Weeding is done occasionally and often in a communal manner whereas the harvest is always carried out by the conjugal unit on its own. Most crops are harvested throughout the year, but corn is harvested only twice a year: in August and January. b) The ownership of gardens

Each married couple has its own garden and is responsible for its management2. In the last chapter I have described the internal dynamics of the married couple and how each spouse encourages the other work. Unlike Sahlins'scheme (1972:92) of the "Domestic Mode of Production", Afro-Pal spouses are not an economic atom, but rather each spouse enables the other to forge economic relationships with the other members of the community. As it will be shown later on, the spouses enable each other to create communal solidarity. The community, is constitutive of the spouse's unity as well as enabling the personal autonomy of each spouse. Both spouses are in charge of the daily

'This tripartite calendar is completed and subdivided in a variety of ways depending on specific climatic features, the level of the rivers, the custom of animals or the activities to be undertaken. For instance, April is known as the period when the woolly monkeys (lagothrix lagotricha) are fat (See Vickers 1989:88, 149). 2Unmarried children work in their parents' gardens. Widowed persons still able to work also have their own garden and receive the assistance of their children. 157

horticultural tasks and the organization of the communal work to be done in their gardens. Decisions about gardening are taken by both spouses together and the garden is regarded as the personal property of both (they both say "my garden" (ye'e siore)). It is important to distinguish that while gardens are seen to be personal property the land on which they are cultivated is not. As I have already indicated, the Airo-Pai subscribe to a 'labour theory of personal property' which also applies to the gardens3: things belong to their maker. Thus the garden, its plants and the crops produced by these as products of one's work, are considered to be personal property. For this reason, by creating a garden a middle-term tie with the cultivated land is established. Both spouses have rights over the land during the period of horticultural production and as long as it is left to fallow (3 years of production followed by a minimum of 5 years of fallow, see Vickers 1989:103). This tie might be renewed if the couple decides to cultivate the same spot after the period of fallow; otherwise the link would be severed. If the fallow is cultivated by another couple (normally with the acquiescence of the previous gardeners if they are alive), this new garden would belong to them. It should be pointed out that people are strongly expected (but not obliged) to make new gardens on their fallow plots. The fallow plot is thus a central element of attachment to a specific territory and of interterritorial mobility. For instance, when walking or canoeing next to a fallow people always mention to whom it belongs. Even when the forest is partially regenerated the fallow can be rapidly recognized because of the presence of peach palms ënJ (bactris gasipaes). If the makers of the fallow are currently living in another settlement, people

stress that they could come back at any time to open a new garden on their fallow. The fallow is thus a door opened for returning to a place. Over the years, new gardens are made and others left to fallow. In this process, the forest is continuously being reshaped and socially redefined as new plots are transformed by the agency of different persons who are attached to them. A new garden is opened every year while older gardens, frequently harvested for three to four years, continue producing. Therefore, each conjugal unit works on two or three gardens at a time. Crop production is expected to exceed consumption but most of the harvesting is carried out as is needed for consumption. Only corn is entirely harvested

comparison with other Lowland Amerindian see Rivière (1984: 15-29), Santos Granero (1991:92), and with tropical forest groups in South-East asia, see Gibson (1986:38)). 158

Table 2: Principal Dlants of the Airo-Pai (Peru)'

Botanical name Edibi. plants:

Manihot esculenta

English (Spanish)

Airo-Pai Varieties Use

Zea mays

sweet& bitter maize

Impomea Bat atas

sweet potato yaji

Saccharum Renealmia sp. Bactris gasipaes Musa x paradisiaca Ananas Comosus Carica papaya Psidium guajava Pouteria sp. Pourouma Inga edulis

sugar cane shivango pijuayo plantain & banana pineapple papaya guayaba caimito uvula guabo

Capsicum annuum

anso huea





16 8 4

ctö 4 uncuisi 3 nuncua

4 14

insi 1 huatijinco kuma 1 toa 1 cuiya 1

bread, flour, juice & drink bread, drink & gruel used in drinks sweetener sauce drink drink and & cakes fresh fresh fresh fresh fresh fresh, used as soap herb

pene

3

chili

pia

12

Banisteriopsis sp. Brugrnansia sp. Brunfelsia sp. Nicotiana tabacum

yage toe chiricaspi tobacco

yaj e pej i ujajai mëto

Cyperus Bixa orellana Urticaceae sp. Justicia sp.

piripiri ach iote needles yanamuco

nuni susi hue 'oco

Cyclanthaceae Crescentia cujete

gourd

nuntu ss

16 hallucinogen 4 hallucinogen 4 hallucinogen smoke and 2 drunk 6 medicinal 6 red dye 2 medicinal 3 blacknens teeth 3 perfume bowls, dishes 1

Others;

ponsa

'See vickers (1989:267-348) for a detailed list of Airo-Pai classification of crops, animals, vegetables and soils. 159

(fig. 20) Garden house, see the units of bread drying on the roof

t.'.V'4

•dii..,.

•..•

.

(fig. 21) Older woman baking manioc bread (aQ)

-

1

160

at one time. Root crops, like manioc tubers, are 'stored' inside the earth until required. Many of them will never be harvested and will provide food for wild athmals. After these three central years of production, the garden is left to fallow but is not abandoned. Fruit trees and palms, medicinal plants, roots, mushrooms and edible insects grow in them for many years but they are harvested only occasionally. When the settlement moves to a new place, the old and new gardens are usually distant from one another. In some cases several hours of steady canoe paddling is necessary to reach the fallow. People always remember the Nbeautifulu gardens they have left behind but say that since they have new ones they could not bother to travel these distances to do the harvesting on a daily basis. As we see, unlike Sahlins' Domestic Mode of Production (1972), the Airo-Pai economy aims at over-producing 5. The crops and useful products of the fallow provide a 'safety net' in case of natural catastrophes like floods. But over-production is also wanted for its own sake. The idea that one should have more food than is actually needed underlies the achievement of a state of comfort and abundance that is highly appreciated by the Airo-Pai. Although the garden is principally a place to produce and 'store' edible and other useful products, it is also a satellite of the settlement where the married pair may enjoy a kind of privacy difficult to find in the settlement. Normally, the spouses build a small house in their garden in which they may spend the whole day side-by-side working on various things, not necessarily horticultural in nature. Mother, daughter and sisters tend to make their gardens side by side so as to keep each other company, especially when their husbands are hunting or fishing. Co-operation between spouses extends to the majority of gardening tasks: recognizing the appropriate spots to plant according to the type of soil and fallen trees, planting, weeding, harvesting corn, repairing damages

4Manioc tubers, for instance, are preserved in the earth up to two years after reaching maturity (Riviere 1987). The Airo-Pai also manipulate numerous vegetation types well beyond the gardening sites and hence they actively reshape the vegetation of the forest. For instance, they place useful and edible plants along trekking trails and in favoured hunting areas, that will be gathered when ripen. In addition the fallow are privileged terrain for the hunters as game go there to eat (for comparison see Hecht & Cockburn 1990:35). 5This is also the case for other Amazonian societies (for instance the Jivaro produce twice as much as is used (Descola 1986: 171-237). 161

caused by the rains and chopping wood for the cooking fire6 . Harvesting throughout the years as the crops ripen or as they are needed (like manioc tubers, plantains, sugar cane, pineapples, etc) is usually a woman's work and for this reason women spend more time in their garden's than do their husbands 7. Unlike other Amazonian groups for whom the garden is primarily a woman's place6, among the Airo-Pai the work of both spouses and the other members of the community must combine in order to grow their vegetable 'children': the plants. Before moving to an examination of communal co-operation, I will explore the indigenous understanding of the relationship between the gardener and his or her plants. c) To produce plants Is to bestow them care Cultivated plants constitute a specific kind of personal property and people feel very upset if anyone touches their plants without their permission. Both spouses call the cultivated plants in their garden "my 'joya". I have already introduced the concept of joya (servant/child) when I examined the Afro-Pal view of the parent/child relationship

and the 'ownership' of living beings (see Chapter 4). As I indicated there, the notion of joya (servant/child) must be examined together with its conceptual counterpart of eja

(master/parent). These two concepts are the poles of a specific form of social relationship which has relevance across the entire field of Airo-Pal life and thought. There is a oneto-one relationship between the master/parent (ja) and his or her servant/child (joyc). The master/parent 'looks after' and 'raises' his or her servant/child. For this reason, the master/parent is seen to 'own' the servant/child and has power to use the servant/child for his or her own benefit. The servant/child is both a recipient of its master/parent's care and an instrument of its master/parent's agency. There is no antagonism between the master/parent's and the servant/child's well being, but rather there is a mutual and cumulative relationship of caring between the two. I will explore further this point concerning the tie between the gardener and its plants. The plants are said to be a person's joya (servant) as long as that person prepares the plot, plants the seeds and carefully weeds and secures the plants' reproduction by Though not properly agricultural, chopping fallen trees at the edge of the gardens is a time consuming task, and an important reason to visit the gardens. 7Also see Vickers(1989:90-102); Hod! and Gasché (1982:24); Langdon (1982:357). ALike the Jivaro, see Brown (1984:97-132). 162

continuing to cultivate new seeds. With the care bestowed by the gardener the plant can grow and produce yields and new seeds that the gardener may then plant in turn. The harvest is seen as both a way of appropriating the crops for human consumption and a means for allowing the plants to reproduce. For instance, manioc stems are re-planted on the spot after the tubers are dug up. Grain techniques differ but here as well human agency is stressed as essential to the plants' reproduction. For instance, corn stems are said to be 'killed' by the sun's rays and the gardener's task is

to

gather the dry corn ears,

store them in his or her house, put them in water so as they may germinate and then plant them at a suitable time. Hence, harvesting is not killing but rather it makes the plants "increase", as the Airo-Pai say. As we see, the Airo-Pai have their own understanding of horticultural production and possession. To them,

to

produce means to

bestow care upon the plants so as to enable them to grow and then to carry yields. As it will be shown below, this idea is predicated upon the existence of a 'social' relationship between the gardener and his or her plants because the latter are conceived of as 'people' in the 'other side' of reality. This relationship of caring between the gardener (master/parent) and its plants (servants/children) also underlies the indigenous understanding of the appropriation of the yields for human consumption. The plants are seen as the gardener's instruments through which his or her decisions may be carried out. Through the care bestowed, the gardener "makes the plant bear a yield*, as the Airo-Pai put it, and these yields are attached to him or her with legitimacy in as much as the plant is the recipient of his or her nurture. The plants in turn are also said to 'look after' the gardener because their yields will feed both the self and one's children. This mutual bestowal of care between the gardener and the plants is explicitly elaborated by the Airo-Pai and it is also presented in shamanic exegesis and songs aiming to guarantee the success of the harvest. dl The cultivated plants as 'Deople' For the Afro-Pal, like for other Amazonian peoples, the communal rituals of shamanism are an integral part of their livelihood 9. Inspired by Malinowski's (1935) correlation between the extent of magical elaboration and the degree of risk in subsistence activities, some anthropologists have focused on the rituals of the hunt to the detriment

'For comparison see Reichel-Dolmatoff (1971), Colson (1989), Overing (1990), Crocker (1985), Brown (1985), Descola (1986), Chaumeil (1983). 163

of gardening because the latter was assumed to be a routine not requiring the intervention of powerful other-worldly beings'°. The Airo-Pai, however, are deeply concerned with garden productivity, and the establishment of contact with the other-world is crucial to their cultural strategies of vegetable production. For instance, they understand that the weather is produced by the action of other-worldly 'people who' can be contacted during hallucinogenic-drinking sessions and requested to produce specific forms of weather. The plants are also seen as other-wordly 'people'. As the Airo-Pai put it, "when we converse with them (during the shamanic sessions), the plants grow beautiful. If, we don't talk to them, how could they know what we need?"". In the past, all the men took part in the shamanic sessions. This 'community of shamans' constituted a specific force of production because they were responsible for the ritual work considered essential to the growth of cultivated plants. It is not my intention to explore in depth the range of ritual activities connected with horticulture'2. Here I will concentrate on two shamanic chants concerning the growth of plants in order to grasp

the meaning of crop production for the Aim-Pal. The indigenous exegesis of the chants is given in brackets. It will be shown that gardening is conceived as a form of 'child rearing'. Within the 'other side' of reality, the plants are 'people' with 'whom' harmonious 'social' relationships must be forged. It is on the basis of these 'social' relationships between gardeners and plants that the Airo-Pai associate legitimacy in the personal appropriation of crops for human consumption.

'°See Vickers (1989) for the Airo-Pal, Goldman (1963:61) for the Cubeo. 1tThere is no dogma about the way the weather is enacted by these 'people': Sun red Macaw (use), the Pleiade brothers (usehuë- pafJ, the summer people of January (omehuepaf), the people of the summer of the caterpillars (in august) (caco-paj), Thunder (muju) and its wife &!oco nomio (the woman who made the earth sank). She is also known as Lutayo when she appears as the owner of the wind and rain. For instance, Llutayo is said to have a house at the level of the clouds. Rain comes when she passes her beer mass through her sieve and the sun is said to hide behind the clouds when the omehue-pai chase it away with their fans. '2With the exception of the shamanic chants which are well known by most adult men, the other ritual feasts , like the first fruits (particularly corn and peach palm fruits (bactris gasipaes)) which appeared to have been important in the past have been abandoned. 164

Singing to the growing maize plants 1 We are coming standing (the corn plants are talking here) 2 living toucans (this the name of the corn plants, they are 'living' toucans, because when they grow and put out grains we and the children we all eat of them) 3 Codo Codo (sound of the plants' growth) 4 We are making It grow 5 Drinking sifting (the corn plants are drinking rain water) 6 The frog place (this is a good place for the plants) 7 We are screiiming sitting (the plants want their mother rain to bring them water) 8 We grow upright (the plants are standing up) 9 Now we speak (the plants have learnt how to speak now) 10 We have our baby hafr (this is what corn fibre is called, don't you see that the plants are growing?) 11 Look at our comb (this is the rain that combs the plants) 12 Our mother's 13 Breast we are sucking sitting (the plants grow as long as there is rain, this is why they call it mother; when summer arrives they do not grow any more) 14 We are grown up 15 We are putting (grains) (the plants are ready to have children now, that is to carry the corn ears) 16 Us yellow young ladies (this is the name of the plants) 17 We are awaking 18 We talk sitting 19 Us, good looking young women 20 Our baby carrying cloth (the envelope where the corn ears develop) 21 Putting It on (now that the plant is big it knows how to talk, it has its babies, the babies are the corn ear) 22 Our babies (the corn ears) 23 Cry jLljuju 24 listen to them crying sitting 25 Our mother Is rocking us (these are the corn ears talking) 26 Do you see now? 27 living toucans 28 Nightjar young ladies (this is what corn plants are called) 29 Our babies 30 We are carrying sitting (the plant is holding the corn ears so that they will not dry up too quickly, the plants are protecting their children against the sun shine) 31 keeping them 32 Purposeful (it is fine) 33 This yellow thing (the corn ear's hair) 34 Purposeful laughing sitting (they say that the crops are laughing because the ears are now big and you can see the grains through the opened envelope) 35 We hold our spears standing (the plant is standing with both her spear in the hand and her baby (the corn ear) holding from her, with the spear she fights against the sun which is attempting to pierce her) 36 Seuseu (sound of the sun piercing and killing the plants)

165

Sin2ing to the growing manioc plants 1 2 3

Jejejeje Us armadillos (this is the name of the bitter manioc) Making a protuberance (When the manioc tuber grow under the earth, the protuberance looks like an armadillo or an agouti hiding). 4 We are purposeful (we are fine) 5 Do you see now? 6 Living armadillos (because the inanioc plants are going to grow to give us tuber to eat, so that we can live well) 7 Looking after them (it is the gardeners who take care of them so that they will not die) 8 SittIng it makes a protuberance (when the inanioc tuber grow they make a protuberance in the earth) 9 Mul mui (the sound of manioc tubers growing and the earth opening under this pressure) 10 Living young armadillos (the manioc tuber) Already (the plants have children - the tubers - already) 11 12 We are working sitting (the tubers are growing) 13 Purposeful (it is fine) 14 Asking, where Is mother? 15 Standing looking (the manioc plants are looking for the gardeners whom they call 'mother' and 'father') 16 Purposeful (it is fine) Where is my father, where is my mother? (the gardeners) 17 18 Our eyebrows our hurting us (the plants call 'eyebrows' the leaves which grow around them, and need to be weeded out) 19 Do you see now? 20 Our armadillo babies (the tubers) 21 We are well now with our painted bodies standing (don't you see that leaves have been weeded then the manioc grows beautifully, this is why it says that it has put on body painting) 22 Our eye brows are hurting us Armadillos babies keeping company 23 24 To guinea pigs babies (sweet and bitter manioc grow side by side in the garden, they both suffer because of their eyebrows) 25 It Is me (the man who owns the garden is speaking) 26 You are my children 27 I am your father (this is said by the owner of the garden who takes care of the gardens and weeds the manioc, he is their father) Where is our father? (ask the manioc plants) 28 We scream, do you see now? 29 We say that our eyebrows are hurting 30 31 jejeJejeje 32 We scream sitting (the manioc plants always scream for their parents - the gardeners - to come and weed but only those who know how to take yage (banisteriopsis) can hear their voices).

166

These songs express the hallucinogenic visions of the growing plants in 'the other side' of reality, and are considered to convey the words of the 'speaking' plants themselves. In the other-world, the primordial plants are 'young women' 'who' nevertheless have animal attributes: toucans for maize, armadillos (da&ypus) for bitter manioc, and agouties (paca) for sweet manioc. These primordial identities signal morphological resemblances between the corn ears and the toucan's beak, and between the protuberance in the earth made by manioc tubers, armadillos and agouties. These animals also relate to mythical beings like the nightjar (hue pau) and the frog (jofo)'3. While an examination of this topic is not my purpose here, it should be stressed that mythic and other-worldly realities of today are intimately linked in Airo-Pai thoughe4. In the shamanic chants the plants are young women who first grow and then bear children. The yield (manioc tubers, corn ears, plantains) are said to be the 'children' of the plants, and hence a similar bestowal of care is understood to link the gardener to the plant as the plant to its yield. The gardener 'raises' the plants and enables them to bear crops. These are somehow a 'second generation' to the gardener and on this basis they belong to him/her with legitimacy. The poetry of the songs depicts the plants' growth as parallel to human development. Like people, the plants rely on their parents' bestowal of care expressed metaphorically in images of body care. Pulling out the eye-brows for weeding, hair combing for rain fall and breast feeding for receiving the nutrients of the rains. The manioc song explicitly state that the gardeners are respectively the 'father' and 'mother' of the plants. The song even includes the answer of the 'father' who promises to weed for them. The maize song is instructive of the Airo-Pai conceptualization of seasonality. Whereas the rain is said to be the plants' nurturing 'mother', the sunshine is seen as a killer. The plants hold their babies and protect them with their spears but eventually they succumb to the piercing rays. No mention is made of the earth as a

'31n mythology, both Nighjar (Huea pau) and Frog (Jojo) are the owners of corn, see Cipolletti 1988) and livi-Strauss (1988) for an analysis of the nightjar and the frog in Amazonia. The link between toucan and corn brings a new light onto the analysis in Chapter 3 concerning the acquisition of the vagina. The armadillo also plays a crucial role in the mythology. It was Armadillo (iwnu) that assisted Moon to recover the earth from inside the waters where Thunder's (Muju) wife (Mayo) (who also is the unfaithful wife of Moon) had made it sink by spreading the content of her manioc beer pots (Cipolletti 1988:46). 14For comparison see Reichel Dolmatoff (1971), Townsley (1988:128), Overing (1990), Descola (1986). 167

'mothering' figure, and this is consistent with a lack of 'mother earth' image in most Amazonian cultures outside the area of influence of the Ouichua people'5 (Faylor 1985:264). The qualification of

'living'(paico)

which is given to the plants, indicates the

primordial identity of the plants in the other-world and states the mutual care given between gardeners and cultivated plants. This point is explicitly elaborated in the exegesis where the plants are said to be 'living' because their yields (the plant's 'children') are food for the Airo-Pal's children. Thus, in Airo-Pai thought, a 'living' primordial being becomes a life-giving force to the humans in this world. The crops feed the Afro-Pal and in turn enable them to carry out further horticultural work and grow new plants. The circle of caring is completed and must be kept in motion so as to ensure the existence of both the plants and the people. In particular, it is seen to propel and sustain the growth of 'children' among both humans and plants. Since to the Airo-Pai to produce is to bestow care, horticulture entails both the production of the plants ('who' are 'people' in the other-world) and the people who eat the crops. In both cases, the ability to "make the children grow up strong" is the central theme of this twofold production of 'people'. Production is thus intrinsically tied to reproduction as it entails the growth of 'children' for both humans and plants. In their excellent studies of the Jivaro 'garden magic', both Brown (1985:97-132) and Descola (1986:237-271) for the Aguaruana and Ashuar respectively, remark that the Jivaro conceive of the garden as a social universe, one that is particularly associated with women and consanguinity where the plants are conceived as a woman's 'children'. Jivaro women possess the practical and magical knowledge (the anent) that propitiate the plants' growth, and female social identity is closely tied to the productivity of their swiddens. By contrast, among the Airo-Pai the garden is a place where both spouses (and their community neighbours as it will be shown below) grow their vegetable 'children'. The garden is thus more precisely a world of gender complementarity and procreation than one of consanguinity. Sexual complementarity also characterizes the stems in the gardens

'5The Airo-Pai differ from the Andean cultures that place great emphasis on the complex notion of the Pacha Mama "mother earth". They have a deep knowledge of different soils and their uses for agriculture, pottery and other techniques (Vickers 1989:80-84). Nevertheless, when they refer to the 'earth' (yeja) they normally mean the vegetation on a piece of land and not the soil alone. The other-worldly being called yeja flu! huaci (earth growth monster) is said to be responsible for the growth of forest vegetation, fruits and nuts. 168

that are distinguished into male (the taller ones) and female (the shorter ones). However, as is shown in the above chants, in the other-world all cultivated plants are considered to be female due to their capability for carrying 'children' (the yields). Therefore, while in 'this world' the productivity of the gardens is seen as the result of the complementary work of husband and wife, in the other-world it is conceived of as single-sex female reproduction. A specific idea of 'generation' runs through this 'social' world of the garden where plants and people meet. While the plants are the gardener's 'children', the crops are a sort of 'grandchildren'. Gardener and plants look after one another, but between the 'alternate generations' of the gardener and the crops there is a predatory link because the crops are harvested, cooked and eaten by people. This predation however leads to the further bestowal of care to new plants as the Airo-Pai (and their children) fed with vegetable food can work hard on the making of new gardens. The Airo-Pai conception of the raising of plants and the production of crops bears implications for an understanding of the Airo-Pai notion of the raising of children and grandchildren. As both husband and wife are responsible for their plants' fertility, parents and parents-in-law are responsible for their children's fertility (see last chapter). Although metaphorical, the predatory tie between the 'alternate generations' of the gardener and the crops is informative. As I indicated in Chapter 2 the Airo-Pai, like other Amazonian peoples, load alternate generations with affinal character and potential conifict (Viveiros de Castro 1991). Whereas between contiguous generations the Airo-Pai establish a relationship of care, I would suggest that the very existence of this tie entails a predatory link between alternate generations. I would argue that this 'predation' is the means by which children reciprocate the care received from their parents by offering them their own children for 'consumption' (in marriage and affinity) so as to keep the replacement of generations in motion. SECTION 2: ThE COMMUNAL ORGANIZATION OF GARDENING

al The working Darty When the spouses need to undertake a time-consuming and labour-intensive task (like slashing a forest patch, planting manioc sticks or a major weeding) they organize a "beer drinking" and working party (cono ucuye or minga in vernacular Spanish). The wife prepares a large quantity of manioc beer mass, then she and her husband invite the other adult members of the community to drink it. The invitation is presented in these terms: 169

"come to drink beer

to

rejoice so that we may have the strength

to

work in my garden".

People insist on being personally invited, otherwise they take it as an insult and stay away. Likewise, refusing

to

respond to an invitation (without an acceptable justification)

is also seen to be offensive to the hosts. Normally, all the community members take part in the working parties of their neighbours (or at the least they always send their older children). Working parties concentrate during slashing and planting times, when they may be held as frequently as three times a week. The spouses who organize the working party are said to be the master/parents of the party (fa) and the guests are said to be their servants/children (/oya). Therefore, the link between the organizers of the working party and their guests is conceptually similar to the parent/child and gardener/plants relationship. Here, I will analyze the meaning of these concepts in the context of communal horticultural work.

Working parties are held on an informal rotating schedule between all the conjugal units of the community. To invite obliges acceptance of the invitations of each of the conjugal units that attended your own work parties. Therefore, it is impossible to receive assistance from one's neighbours without taking part in the entire cycle of working parties held by the other community members. Each conjugal unit is expected to organize its own working parties and is responsible for joining those of its neighbours'. The community headman has no power to force people to accept other people's invitations to work, although he may use his oratory skills to exhort them to "think well" and cooperate, as I often heard him saying. It is possible that in the past, under the regime of the long-house, the community headman directed the horticultural communal work more closely, but currently communal co-operation is decentralized and each conjugal unit is liable for its own contribution. Regardless of age differences, affinal and kin ties, or who is the community headman, the spouses who organize the working party are said to be the master/parents of the party and they have authority over their guests. Therefore, each working party is based on a different hierarchical ordering of the communal group. The overall pattern of the cycle of communal co-operation is hence decentralized, inclusive and egalitarian. I describe one working party so as to illustrate a more complete picture of the tie between hosts and guests. The following working party was organized in midMarch in order to plant manioc stems in a new garden. Three days before both spouses personally invited their neighbours to drink and work, and the wife began preparing the manioc mass for the beer. On the date fixed, people arrived at their hosts' house at about 8 AM. They wore facial painting for the occasion. As they arrived they were served maniac beer by the wife. Drinking and chatting went 170

on until approximately 12 AM, when slowly they left for the garden following the initiative of the husband. There, in a general atmosphere of enjoyment, joking and still chatting, manioc stems were planted until 3 PM. Men opened a hole in the earth with a wooden stick they made on the spot, while women planted the manioc stem in the hole left'6. There was a long pause for more beer to be served, upon which the planting continued till 5 PM. The guests tried to complete the garden, but considered that they had done enough for the day and went back to their hosts' house where they continued to drink into the night (9 PM). When they returned home they were quite drunk (both men and women) and took no meals because they were full with beer'7 The day after, there was enough manioc beer left to invite people to finish up the planting. The guests complained that they had already drunk too much but came. The celebration ended by noon. In the afternoon they all rested at home, recovering from hang-overs. Not all the working parties are as long as this one but the majority take a whole day. I was told that working was always slow if the master/parents did not push their servants, but I never saw people work any harder. The pattern seems to be this: the hosts feed their guests (the wife serves the drinks personally) and take the initiative in work. They stimulate the others with their jokes but do not impose their rhythm upon them. They are also - and probably the most - enthusiastic drinkers. The guests are thus not coerced but animated to work. Like the Cubeo leader (Goldman, 1963:84), the Airo-Pai master/parents of the party: "does what he can to boost morale". The achievement of informality and intimacy is crucial to the dynamics of communal co-operation. If the work planned is not completed, the hosts feel upset. Nevertheless, this does not create a debt from the guests toward the hosts. When for one reason or another the hosts were constrained to finish the work by themselves over the next days, their neighbours cheered them up by exclaiming that there was a lot to do for just one working party and, anyway they had a good time. Another possibility for discontent would be that the beer prepared is not finished. In this case, the couple invites their neighbours to drink until the last drop, sometimes much to the dismay of all who, as they drink, complain that they feel sick.

16There is no strict gender division of tasks, some people do it the other way around. Children are not given a proper meal either, unless there is food spared from previous cooking. 171

b) Planting and drinking The consumption of marnoc beer is instrumental to the organization of communal working parties". In the guests' eyes, the beer served during the working party is not a payment for their work. They consider themselves entitled to this beer because they contributed to the creation of the garden and the planting of manioc the year before. Therefore, they see that the manioc transformed into beer somehow belongs to them. Similarly, during the working parties they often express, so as to boost morale, that next year they will drink the new manioc that they are currently planting. As we see, the communal right of usufruct of the products of communal work generates the dynamics that keeps the communal cycle of working parties in motion. As I will show below, one is not entitled to harvest the crops planted in other people's gardens, but one can expect to be fed with the food prepared with those crops. The communal redistribution of crops

is thus mediated by the cooking and serving of the woman who owes the garden. In other words, a woman's cuisine is the prerequisite to the communal sharing of vegetables and the further production of these. It is evident that the communal co-operation of working parties facilitates horticultural tasks and renders them more pleasant, especially the heavy slashing work. On the other hand, the efficiency of these parties, as illustrated above, is questionable. By themselves, the spouses may need three days to plant manioc stems in their new garden. If they invite their neighbours to drink and work, the job will be done in one day (normally). But invitations obligate people to attend working parties, and manioc beer has to be prepared and drunk. Considering the time spent drinking and then recovering from the hang-over, the working parties are clearly a waste of time. Without doubt there is much more to working parties than a gain in efficiency. It is more a question of achieving an informal and enjoyable communal gathering by consuming the beer made with the crops planted the previous year. In this festive atmosphere, the members of the community are involved once again in the process of producing the vegetable 'children' (the plants) of their community neighbours. In this way, all the members of the community have a share in the 'parenting' of the vegetable 'children' of one another. Community co-residents are thus 'co-parents' of each other's plants but the proper 'parenthood' and ownership of the

"The recipes of manioc beer currently prepared were adopted from the Quichua people approximately twenty years ago. Before, the AirO-Pai made a strong alcoholic drink (pore cono) which required fifteen days of preparation using a combination of roasted, boiled and decomposed manioc tubers and plantains. 172

plant is attributed to the married couple who manages the garden specifically. As we see, personal autonomy and community are constitutive of one another in a processual manner. The schedule of communal working parties is grounded in the personal work and ownership of the garden by both husband and wife (who organize the working parties together). In turn, the plants and crops that are personally owned by both spouses are produced with the assistance of the community. The work carried out through the personal autonomy of the spouses forges community, and vice versa. c) The harvest By contrast to the previous horticultural steps, the harvest is never carried out communally. This is because the Airo-Pai understand that the action of harvesting is an act of personal appropriation of the crops. Everything that a person harvests belongs to him or her no matter from whose garden these crops have been obtained. Although as we have seen the Airo-Pai are highly concerned about the growing of plants, the last horticultural stage - the harvest - has characteristics typical of gathering activities' 9. The harvest is understood to be a form of free fetching, such that the first person to take the fruit from the branch has rights over it. The indigenous concept of the harvest is similar to their idea of the gathering of forest products and the hunt. These three activities are expressed by the term huërocaine that means: 'to go looking for something and bring that thing back'. For this reason, the harvest is always done by the conjugal unit alone or by the wives on a daily basis. Only the spouses who manage the garden may appropriate the crops with legitimacy but, occasionally, they may invite other people to harvest from their garden. The crops harvested by the guests always belong to them (for instance, visiting women and the school teacher's wife are regularly invited to harvest by the other women of the community). To harvest from another person's garden without permission from its owners is seen as theft and always causes frictions even between immediate kin. dLmma

Up to this point, we have seen that the conjugal unit is the vital work-team for the growth of vegetable 'children' (the plants) and 'grand-children' (the yields). Through the rotating schedule of working parties each conjugal unit involves the others in the process

' See McCallum (1989:193) for comparison with the Cashinahua and Ingold (1986:222-241) for comparison with hunter-and-gatherer societies. 173

of producing their plants, but the crops may be harvested with legitimacy only by the couple who manages the garden. The other members of the community may not harvest from other people's gardens unless given particular authorization, but they can rightly expect to be fed with the food produced with those crops. Thus, the communal cooperation (organized by each married couple in turn) is a step of production that leads to the acquisition of personally owned crops. In the next section I will show that this personal ownership of crops is one stage that leads to the communal sharing of food. The principle here is that crops are personally owned in order to be personally given away. But the crops are not given raw, they must first be transformed into drink or bread. I have already remarked that the manioc beer served during the working parties was a way of distributing the crops produced the year before. I will now examine in detail the process of transformation from raw crops to edible drinks and bread, and the patterns of communal sharing of cooked food. SECTION 3: PREPARING AND OYFERING BREAD AND DRINK

The preparation and serving of drink and bread are a woman's work. Here, I will argue that preparing and serving cooked food are intimately linked in Airo-Pai thought. The woman who cooks is entitled to give her food away and feed other people with the products of her work. The action of cooking creates an intrinsical link between herself and her food: it contains aspects of herself. By eating the food produced by another person, one incorporates her products and risks 'contamination' (sEaye) with her physical and moral attributes, and at the same time one becomes more 'like' her. Cooking and serving define the female moral person and the demonstration of cooking skills between the women of the settlement is vital to the creation of sociality within the community. a) Drinks Soft vegetable drinks are key to the Airo-Pai diet: at breakfast and after each meal, each person is served a big bowl of vegetable drink. Daily and even several times a day, a married woman prepares sweet soups and beers from plantain, maize, different sorts of palm fruits and many jungle fruits in season. Fermented manioc beer is prepared just for festivities and working parties. A woman prepares drinks from the crops produced in her own gardens. The time spent in the preparation varies greatly depending on the quality of the drink prepared. Corn, peach palm (bactris gasipaes) and the nicely sieved 174

plantain drinks take from two to four hours to prepare, whereas the simple plantain soups only require twenty minutes (see appendix 2). Corn and peach palm beer is prepared exclusively by adult women (with the assistance of their unmarried daughters), but young girls normally prepare the simple plantain drinks. The person who prepares the drinks is always the one who serves it. Sweet drinks are mainly for the household's consumption, but when the fruits are ripe a woman prepares a large quantity of drink. She keeps a portion for her own use (that will be drunk in the following days) and offers the rest pot, she goes from house

to

to

her neighbours. Carrying a full

house. She offers a full bowl of drink individually to each

person she meets at her neighbours' house (men and women). She hands over the bowl, and waits until the person swallows its contents and hands the bowl back to her. Then she refills the bowl and hands it to another person. Her husband is served first, then senior women and men, and young people. The anthropologist was normally the last. In offering, a woman is both conscientious and controlling. She distributes her drink according to her own planning and exercises pressure upon others so that they may acknowledge her presence and accept her drink. Once her pot is empty, she leaves. It is not uncommon then to hear joking comments and giggles from the women who were served on the quality of the drink, and on how they did not really feel like drinking but had to do so lest the offerer should be upset. Such comments are common when the giver is not a sister, daughter or mother. Men may also make comments, but more seldomly and discreetly. During the festivities, when women offer each other large amounts of alcoholic manioc beer, these mixed feelings about being served by another woman are exacerbated. As they get drunker and drunker, they comment more openly on how they feel obliged to drink. b) Bread

On average, a married woman with young children prepares bread once a week. She makes about fifty breads, for preparing less is not worth the effortw, it was explained. An Airo-Pai bread is a thin disk of about forty centimetres in diameter and five millimetres in depth. Women know a great variety of recipes using assorted combinations of sweet and bitter manioc, maize, and manioc starch (the grated manioc mass is never left to ferment). They axe master bakers, their breads are regular in shape and lightly and evenly toasted. Typically, a woman harvests her manioc in the morning (the tubers are normally peeled on the spot), prepares the mass in the afternoon and bakes the 175

next morning. Some of the breads are then left in the sun for a few hours until they harden. In this way, they may be preserved for a long time (see appendix 2). Unlike the eastern-Tukanoan manioc-processing techniques that are performed on a daily basis (C. Hugh Jones 1979:174-80), the Airo-Pai method is not particularly time demanding. The general schedule does not differ significantly from the one found among the Carib groups of Guiana (Riviere 1987:184). On average, a marned woman spends twelve to fifteen hours a week in the processing of manioc (from going to the garden to harvest to the washing up of the crockery). Women do not work in a hurry and they often interrupt it in order to talk with friends and to attend to their children20. A married woman prepares bread (and drink) from the crops harvested in the garden managed by herself and her husband. Therefore, baking is a process that begins with gardening, and a woman is as equally proud of the quality of her manioc and maize as of her baking abilities. Since these processes are interconnected, the idea of baking another woman's manioc is an undesirable one because it implies that one has not being able to produce it for oneself and that one depends on another woman's garden like a childish daughter, or that one's gardens have been destroyed because of the bad weather. Married women use their unmarried daughters' and young daughters-in-law's assistance, especially for harvesting, washing the tubers and grating them. Baking, however, is always done personally and the bread is said to belong to its baker regardless of the assistance received for the preparation of the mass. Nobody would eat the bread baked by another person without her authorization, even her husband and children usually wait to have her informal approval before taking a snack of bread. Occasionally, due to specific circumstances, a grown-up woman may request some assistance from another adult woman - preferably a daughter or mother. Outside that of young daughters and daughters-in-law, inter-female co-operation is not expected behaviour and it needs to be personally requested. Although a woman is entirely responsible for the baking process, this is rarely a solitary task. On the contrary, when a woman bakes she is visited. Chatting and playing

20

Airo-Pai do not use the well-known tipiti press. Their manioc press is a long mat of plaited bark fibre about 10 inches long. The mat is wound spirally around the mass of grated manioc and one of its extremities is hung from a horizontal pole of the house. A wooden stick is passed through a noose in the other extremity. The mat is squeezed by making the stick rotate and blocking it against a vertical pole of the house (see Steward: 1948, 5:84). Although this pressing technique requires muscular strength, it has the advantage of extracting the manioc liquid to the point required. 176

with the babies go on while the breads accumulate on the tray. People take snacks of warm bread rubbed with some spicy sauce. As soon as the baker has turned the last handful of flour into a round crispy bread, she rubs each of them with manioc starch to make them soft (mixed corn and manioc are not treated in this way). Then, she folds the bread nicely and goes off with them to her neighbours'. She offers one bread individually to each woman who is able to bake and from whom she usually receives freshly made breads

21•

Although these offerings of bread take place with apparent informality,

they are in fact quite ritualized. The bread must be fresh, slightly warm and very soft, and it has to be handed individually to each woman baker. When the expected recipient is not at home, the givers specifies to the other people there for whom the bread is intended. As we see, this is a highly personal gift from baker to baker. I will examine this gift exchange in the next section. The rest of the breads are kept by the baker; she may put half the lot to dry and keep the rest to be eaten soft on the following day. Bread is eaten at the daily meals or at any other time of the day, like the snacks rubbed with a spicy sauce. Bread may also be offered to visitors who are invited to enter the house (men and women of the community or outsiders). The stress of Airo-Pai hospitality is upon generosity and it is very rare for a visitor to leave a house without receiving some food from his or her host (either bread, a drink, or some meat dish when available). Here again, it is the wife who normally takes the initiative to feed the visitor and who hands the food over to him or her. c) The social implications of manioc processing methods Rivière (1987) has drawn a correlation between forms of social organization and manioc processing techniques in Amazonia. He contrasts the daily and time-consuming Eastern-Tukanoan methods with the weekly and relatively less complicated ones practiced by the people of the Guianas. He remarks that this difference reveals two solutions to the amount of time women should spend preparing food. He argues that both political systems - the eastern-Tukanoan and the Carib of Guiana - are "based on control over the productive and reproductive capacities of people, above all of women" (ibid: 182). He sees in uxorilocality the principle upon which the cognatic Carib ensure the control over women's work (since daughters remain under the direct control of their parents), and

21As I never learnt to bake (though I tried) I was never offered bread in this circumstance. 177

argues that among the virilocal and patrilineal eastern-Tukanoan this control is achieved through the division of labour and specifically the NroutinizationN of women's cooking methods. The long hours spent processing manioc operate to allow women little freedom of action and thus maintain unchallenged the control their husband's group has on their life. For several reasons, the western-Tukanoan Aim-Pal do not fit well into this framework of comparison; first, because a proper evaluation of the Aim-Pal data should take into account the corn processing techniques which are extremely important at the practical and the symbolic level (the favourite Airo-Pai bread is made of a mixture of corn and manioc and the drink is corn beer); and second, because traditionally the Airo-Pai are virilocal (and now also uxorilocal), but have the simple weekly manioc processing techniques similar to the Carib. While agreeing with Rivière that safe human resources are at the core of the creation of the 'inside' of Amazoman communities (also see Rivière 1984:93), I would argue that bread-making and cooking in general are very important activities through which women assert their power both within the conjugal unit and the community at large. Although it is undeniable that preparing food takes a large proportion of a woman's time (daily hours spent vary greatly depending on the particular tasks to be done), Airo-Pai women are notoriously in control of their hearth and food. Both men and women hold a high valuation of the female (vegetable and meat) cooking skills and women have entire control over the distribution process of cooked food. Thus, to view women's bread-making as a means by which men control their women would be a reduction doing injustice to the place of women in Aim-Pal society. In the next chapter I will examine the gender organization of the meals. For now I will concentrate on the inter-female gifts of fresh bread. These are a salient feature of daily life in the Airo-Pai community, and the pattern of bread-sharing is typical of all movements of cooked food between the women of the community. SECTION 4: ThE INTER-FEMALE GifTS OF BREAD a) Baking and giving bread As mentioned, the Airo-Pai think of baking as a personal capability that creates an intimate link between the baker and her bread: only the baker has the right to offer her bread to another person because her bread contains aspects of herself. The receiver may eat the bread (by herself or during a family meal) but she cannot give that bread away. 178

Thus, receiving bread means to accept being fed and incorporating the product of another person. Similarly, giving bread is an asymmetrical act of feeding people with the products of one's work. This point is highlighted by the way young girls begin to bake and offer their bread. During my field-work, a nine year old girl began preparing her own lot of bread. She used her mother's manioc but went through all the steps of production on her own, although her mother gave her some supervision. As soon as she finished baking her own breads, she first offered a bread to each of the baker-women in her own house - including her mother - and then went off to her neighbours. She offered a unit of bread to each baker-woman in the community. The women accepted them, although amused since the bread were irregular and smaller than usual. But from that day onwards the girl was offered bread by the other female bakers each time that they prepared new bread. In this way the girl acquired her own identity as a baker among the other bakers of the community. Interestingly, the girl offered fresh bread to her mother as well. Thus, she related to her own mother as one more female neighbour. Even though she will continue to use her mother's manioc and hearth (until she is married and produces her own

together with her husband), the bread she will bake will be her own. As she learns to bake and offer her bread, the girl separates from her mother and goes one step further into autonomous adulthood. I often heard mothers exclaiming with delight things like: 'my daughter already knows how to bake. She is a woman now'. Learning to bake is thus intrinsically linked to the active creation of inter-female relationships by which bread can be given away and other people be fed with it. b) The Inter-personal network of gifts within the settlement Who is offered bread by whom is a difficult question to settle. In any case, mutuality is the obvious factor: one offers bread to the women who give bread to one's self. The offering of bread is a feature of inter-female communal co-residence. But, the frequency of offering varies according to afflnal and kin duties and the closeness of the interpersonal relationship between the particular women involved. The women who offer bread to each other tend to live in proximity to one another, visit each other frequently and accompany each other to gather fruits in the forest. This is the case for mother, daughter and sisters (especially), female in-laws and co-parents in-laws, but it is not restricted to these categories for other women from the community may also form close

179

friendships of this kind. The Airo-Pai community as a whole is not a homogeneous entity of solidarity because each person develops her own unique social field. Similar flexibility of communal integration has been reported for other Amazonian groups (see Thomas (1982:236) on the Pemon). A woman is clearly more eager to offer her bread than to receive bread from another woman. However, if she is evidently being neglected, she reacts as though she were deprived of an attention to which her children (rather than herself) had a right. She complains that her children are the victims of that woman's 'stinginess' (useye) and insists on how little they have to eat. For instance, she may say things like this: *my little children are hungry and that woman is being stingy, it is in vain that she is my children's relative, she does not know how to offer. I have never seen or heard any woman openly recriminate another for her lack of generosity (unless they were both drunk). Normally, the offended one pleads her cause to her female friends, who quickly report it to the offender. The latter always fears the other woman's 'anger'(pine) at her, and tries to smooth the matter over. For example, she may offer some new bread, though she might not take it herself but send it with one of her children. When no reparation is done, the relationship itself cools down and so does the frequency of their offerings. I have never seen or heard of a person refusing to accept bread or any other kind of food from someone else. But the bread received from a person whom one dislikes (for one reason or another) may be secretly thrown away in the river because one is suspicious that it may make oneself and one's children sick. The food prepared by people whom one dislikes is said to be usmellyw (goasunco) and 'contaminating' with all sorts of illnesses, both moral and physical. In fact, women are always critical of other people's cooking skills either jokingly or because they are seriously preoccupied with the possibility that the food could do them harm. There is also an element of competition between bakers (and cooks, in general). Normally, women openly prefer to eat the food they have prepared themselves and the food received from others is eaten as a last resource. For instance, a woman stores the bread she has received until all her own are finished. Each single offering of bread is both a sign of the present state of the inter-personal relationship between two women and a means for redefining it. Therefore, the actual

According to my informants, similar offerings of food took place in the past among the women sharing the older virilocal long-houses. 180

pattern of offerings at a certain moment (who is given food by whom and how frequently) depends on the mood of the persons involved. This is an "intimate" system of food circulation based on face-to-face interaction and is very personal in quality. Although these features fit Price's definition of 'sharing'(1975:4), in other respects the flow of bread between female neighbours is better understood as the mutual giving of gifts - the objective being to establish and maintain specific social relationships between givers and receivers (Ibid: 1975:23). c) Mutual gifts of bread As I have indicated, the gifts of bread are noticeable for their mutuality. I suggest that these mutual gifts of bread should be considered as a mode of sharing out food among the women of the community, who in turn eat the food received together with their husbands and children during the daily meals. Here I will examine the specificity of this mode of communal food sharing. I use the expression 'sharing out' because these are prestations of food that move from hand to hand. In his study of hunter-and-gatherer societies, Ingold (1986) draws the distinction between 'sharing out' that he defines as "a distributive movement whereby stuff held at the outset by a single person is divided up so as to be available for use by an aggregate of beneficiaries" and 'sharing in' as a "principle of unrestricted access whereby means of subsistence are enjoyed in common" (Ingold 1986:233). This concept of 'sharing in' does not fully apply to the Airo-Pai case because the access to food is always restricted in the sense that one cannot take something with legitimacy unless one has been personally given it (even between immediate kin and spouses). I use the term 'sharing out' in the sense of a transaction that is carried out from giver to receiver. Among kin, one can expect requests and even demands for food, but to take something without personal permission is seen as theft (goaqul) and a negation

of kinship. Theft creates enmity and breaks down kinship. By contrast the personal acts of giving and accepting are constitutive of kinship (for comparison with the Cashinahua see McCaflum 1989:206). Although the giver of bread also expects to be offered bread, a woman does not keep account of how many breads such or such person gave her. The stress is not put on the duty to reciprocate but on the generosity of the giver and the mutuality of the acts of giving. Exchange in the sense of giving one thing in return for another is hence an inadequate category for describing these movements of bread. In the continuum of forms of reciprocity drawn by Sahlins (1972:185-275), the flow of bread would be somewhere 181

mid-way in the spectrum between generalized reciprocity (one way flows, unrestricted generosity) and balanced reciprocity. But, Sahlins' idea of reciprocity as compensation does not apply in this case. The relevant concept is that of mutuality (we both give to and receive from each other). An Airo-Pai woman is not interested in compensating the others for the food received in the past because an even point where the unbalance is cancelled is not desirable. What women value is the inter-personal relationships that develop between themselves and their children on the basis of mutual acts of giving and receiving food from one another. A woman has different reasons for giving her bread away and for receiving bread from others. I will first look at the rationality lying behind the act of giving bread. The gift of bread has no clear utilitarian value since bread is normally produced in enough quantities by each woman. In fact, the circulation of bread among the women of the settlement contributes creating an impression of abundance of food that is highly appreciated by the Airo-Pai for its own sake. Giving bread does not generate any wealth and the bread is directly consumed by the receiver (her husband and children). But by offering her bread a woman is also asserting her capabilities as an autonomous producer of food and a feeder, and as such she is demonstrating her qualities as a morally capable adult woman. A competitive spirit also animates her as she tries to bake the nicest bread of all. The capability to feed is an important criterion of personal prestige but it is not at the expense of other women of the community. On the contrary, mutual acts of giving enable all women to have the opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities in baking and feeding others. The prestige generated is thus inclusive - not exclusive - and it does not bring about unilateral control over the other. Rather, it creates a communal network of competitive equality between women who recognize each other as autonomous and generous persons. As I have indicated, the reason for receiving bread is phrased in terms of one's children. A married woman says that the bread received is for her children, and neglect in food is seen as the refusal to feed one's children. Since in the Airo-Pai community, the children are related as kin to everybody in the settlement, when a woman gives bread to another (who might be her kin or affine) she is fulfilling her duties concerning food towards her own young kinsfolk. In this way she is contributing to their corporeal growth and is actively creating kinship. The communal inter-female gifts of food are thus the vehicle by which the women of the community take part in the growth of each other's children and come to see themselves as a group of people who bring up their children 182

together. At the same time, the receiving of bread may also lead to antagonistic feelings and be seen as dangerous. Each individual gift of bread is a personal asymmetrical and direct prestation of food. The giver is the feeder while the receiver is being fed. Although a woman expects to be given bread, actually being fed by another woman generates mixed feelings and these are expressed in her remarks and jokes about the other woman's food. Being fed entails entering, albeit temporarily, another woman's sphere of agency and control, and it requires that one should trust the person from whom food is being received. This resembles the position of a childish daughter, something that adult women evidently feel uncomfortable about. They may settle distance by joking and criticizing the food they are given. This critical attitude is exacerbated when there is an on-going conifict between the two women. In a small community this is often the case, especially between women who are not immediate kin (mother, daughter, sisters). Frequently, there is friction caused by a past lack of generosity with food or horticultural services. As I have indicated, I have never seen people refusing to accept food from another, but the food prepared by people whom one dislikes is considered dangerous to eat and 'contaminating', and is secretly thrown away. In these cases of inter-personal conflict, the gift of food operates at the threshold of a break in the relationship. If no bread is offered, this entails a cease of the interaction. If bread is offered, the relationship persists. It may improve, or it may stagnate as the conflict is kept latent. As she oscillates from the position of the giver to that of the receiver, a woman can both perform her role as nurturer and be nurtured by the other women. This tension between a woman's personal autonomy and her dependency on others is a characteristic feature of the Airo-Pai understanding of what living 'organized' (Sisiye) in a settlement means. In this mode of sharing out food the Afro-Pal find a balance between the individual and the collectivity, a theme that preoccupies them like other Amazonian gmups. d) Giving bread on behalf of the married pair

Although bread offerings are carried out and organized by women, they are not uniquely a female matter. Men are also the recipients of women's food (bread and meat dishes). They enjoy women's bread during the meals (see Chapter 7). Indirectly and

See Goldman (1963); Thomas (1982: 236); Rivière (1984) and Overing (1992a). 183

through their wives, men are also bread givers and nurturers, for both men and women work together in their gardens although women do most of the harvest. The crops they produce are a concrete manifestation of conjugal co-operation. In addition, the cooking tools used in the preparation of the manioc and maize mass are made by the husband and offered to his wife. As I have argued in the last chapter, this is a means of stating the complementarity of the male (fibre and wood) and the female (pottery) technologies for the processing of food. When a woman prepares bread and offers it to other women, she is displaying her personal capabilities for baking and for having an harmonious and productive marriage. Thus in bread offering the woman does not stand just for herself. She acts out the giving on behalf of herself, but also on behalf of the married couple as a unit and her young children who assisted her regularly at home and in the garden. e) Giving bread on behalf of the community

The woman giver also stands for her community at large since the horticultural work for producing her crops was undertaken with the cooperation of all the community members. A woman's gift of bread is hence the expression of the community's harmonious and productive work. The bread given is a recognition for the communal assistance received and the means by which crops are shared out after being transformed by and attached to the person of the baker. The stress put by the Airo-Pai on the personal ownership of crops should thus be regarded as a device for the personalization of each woman within the communal food-sharing network. This specific sharing out strategy sets out an arena where women constantly redefine the quality of their inter-personal ties as well as fulfil their duties concerning the providing of food for kin and affine, and especially the feeding of each other's children. Given the fact that the Airo-Pal conceive production as a form of bestowing care, what is produced throughout this vegetable cycle are both the plants ('who' are people in the other-world) and the people who eat from the food made with the crops. As the Airo-Pai put it, they work together so as to enable their children to "eat and grow up strong". As we have seen, the food shared out between the women is crucial to the creation of community as a unit that is understood as the group of people who raise their children together.

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CHAPTER 7: ThE MEAT CYCLE This chapter is concerned with what may be called the meat cycle of the Airo-Pai economy. By this I mean the fivestep process of: 1) hunting and fishing, 2) distribution of raw meat, 3) culinary preparation, 4) distribution of cooked meat and 5) consumption. Like the vegetable food cycle analyzed in the last chapter, the meat cycle needs to be considered as a whole (from the acquisition of game meat to its consumption) in order to grasp the Airo-Pai understanding and enactment of communal co-operation and food sharing. Here, I will examine the meaning of the appropriation of meat from the forest and rivers, the strategies of communal food sharing and the crucial role played by women as they prepare and offer meat dishes to the other married women of the community. I will also discuss the social order underlying the meals during which meat, bread and drink are eaten together. In section 1, I analyze the indigenous understanding of hunting and fishing which the Airo-Pai describe as "searching for meat". I looked at the communal sharing of knowledge of the movements of game in the forest and rivers both in 'this world' and the other-world. Both hunting and fishing are conceptualized as the gift of prey by the otherworldly 'master/parent of the prey'. I then move on in section 2 to an examination of the social organization of hunting and fishing and the distribution of raw and cooked meat. Culinary procedures and the conserving techniques of meat are described in section 3. I then turn to an analysis of daily inter-female gifts of meat dishes in section 4 and the meals themselves in section 5. In section 6, I discuss the Airo-Pai material in relation to current debates on Amazonian economies. SECTION 1: KNOWING ABOUT ThE PREY a) Providing meat for the meals All healthy Airo-Pai men hunt and fish. Although some men are better than others at killing certain species of animals, the differences in yield between the best and the worst hunter/fisherman is little (see Vickers 1975b). The major motivation for hunting and

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fishing is to procure meat (hua 'i) and fat (hulyape) to eat'. The Airo-Pai word 'hua 'i" means 'meat', 'prey' and 'game'. Forest and water animals are said to be hua'i but fish are often specified as 'river meat' (siaya hua 'I). When an Airo-Pai man is about to leave for hunting or fishing he generally announces to all present: 'I am going to search for and bring back meat' (hua'i huemcaicoa'e'). Hunting is thus a 'fetching' activity like harvesting and gathering forest products (see Chapter 6). Unlike gardening, hunting and fishing are not conceived of as 'growing' activities, but rather they are understood as the personal appropriation of raw food (meat). Generally, a man leaves for the forest on his own. Occasionally small groups (of two or three men) are fonned and communal fishing expeditions take place during the dry season. In all cases, the animal is considered as belonging to the person who killed it. Killing is hence an act of personal appropriation of raw meat. If the ammunition used to kill the animal belonged to another person then he/she is seen to have direct rights over the meat (normally a half) because the animal's death is said to be caused by both the ammunition and the hunter who shot it. Boys are taught how to use a rifle, traps, spears and hooks from seven years old onwards, but there is much more to hunting and fishing than merely killing game. Courage is required to enter the forest on one's own, endurance for walking and paddling long hours in search of the prey, patience to wait and silence to surprise them. As Descola (1986:293) points out, the good provider of meat should be knowledgeable in animal customs. He should recognize all sorts of signs revealing the presence of the prey in the water and land (like footprints, sounds, smells, and the types of food that they may have eaten). He should know about an animal life cycle, be able to imitate mating sounds so as to attract them and predict their reactions when wounded but not killed. This is critical in the dense forest because the non-knowledgeable hunter might be unable to find the animal he has shot. In sum, the good hunter (fisherman) should be able to imagine what it is like to be a prey. The disciplined and intellectual skills of the 'simulation' of animal behaviour are learnt progressively during childhood and crystallized during the puberty rites. Regardless of how well prepared the provider of meat may be, however, the fundamental problem of where to find the prey remains. The animals are moving continuously across the forests and rivers of the region. The success

'In the past, feathers, teeth and bones from birds and animals were kept to make ornaments and hooks. Currently, only peccary's skin is saved for trading with the river traders. 186

of hunting and fishing expeditions thus depends on whether one is able to locate the prey. Knowledge about the movements of prey is shared communally on a daily basis. Whenever a man or woman or child notices the presence of prey in the surrounding forest, rivers or gardens he or she communicates it to the other members of the community in informal conversations. In this way, information about the movements)rey is continuously being circulated within the community so that each man may benefit from it and make the appropriate decisions as to where to look for meat in the following days. Valuable information is also said to be contained in dreams. Everyday at dawn, men and women freely visit their neighbours and greet each other with a polite: "What did you dream?" (uncure cancore ,n'?) Both men's and women's dreams are taken into consideration and commented upon by everybody present. Most dreams are conventionally interpreted in relation to the hunt of peccary (for Comparison with the Jivaro Achuar see Descola 1986:328). Type of dream A) Positive dreams 1) People visiting the settlement. 2) To kill a person. 3) To carry a bunch of plantains B) Negative dreams 1) Peccary approaching the settlement 2) to kill a peccary.

Conventional interpretation 1) A peccary horde will soon pass by the settlement in the same direction that the visitors came. 2) Peccary will soon be killed. 3) Successful hunt, the weight of the plantains. stands for the weight of the meat the hunter will carry back home. 1) illness will soon strike the settlement. 2) Somebody will soon die or fall badly ill.

Thus, in dreams peccary appear to be 'people' and vice-versa: people look like peccary. In order to understand this, it is necessary to examine the Airo-Pai conceptualization of the existence of the prey in the other-world and the role of shamanism for securing the presence of prey in the forest and rivers surrounding the settlement.

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bi The prey in the other-world The importance of ritual practices for hunting and fishing in Amazonia is well documented2 . For the Airo-Pai as well, the ritual work of the community during the shamanic sessions was a prerequisite for the practical work of the hunter/fisherman. AfroPal shamanism of the hunt and fishing elaborates upon the notion of the 'master/parent' of the prey which I will briefly describe here. According to the Airo-Pai, the prey do not live continuously in the forest and rivers, but rather they are seen to dwell in a 'place' (hue/la) of their own in the 'other side' of reality. There are four major groups of prey:

land mammals, fish, monkeys and birds. Each group is said to live in a different otherworldly 'place' under the authority of its own 'master/parent'(tja). The prey are said to be the 'servant/children' (/oya) of their other-worldly master/parent3. The link between

the prey and their other-worldly master/parent is thus conceptually similar to the parent-child, gardener-plant, and leader-follower relationships examined in the previous chapters. The master/parent raises the prey like his or her 'children' and has decisionmaking power over them. The master/parent keeps and looks after his or her 'children' in his or her other-worldly 'place', but may release a few into the forest and rivers (in

'this side of reality') in order to provide prey to be killed and eaten by the Airo-Pai. The master/parent of the prey are seen as powerful other-worldly 'people' 'who' manifest themselves through dreams and can be contacted during hallucinogenic drinking sessions. In this way, the shamans can request that they send prey in the forest and rivers knowing where they may be found. The prey bestowed in this way are said to be docile and easy to kill. Although generally benevolent, the master/parent of the prey may also send illness and even death to the humans when the appropriate hunting and dietary prescriptions are not respected. For this reason, the mediation of dreams and communal shamanic sessions are understood as a fundamental element for the maintenance of a good communication with the master/parent of the prey. Principal master/parent of the prey: - Land m2mmals (excluding tapir): Macatafle ("knowledgeable diver under water"), human shape, male. - Water: Aflapeque ("snake's genitor") described as a chtimrical being, a mixture of 2 See Vickers (1975b) on the Airo-Pai, for comparison see Reichel-Dolmatof (1971), Colson (1989), Overing (1990), Descola (1986). 3Each group of prey is subdivided in a variety of ways according to indigenous classifications of animal species. 188

anaconda, manatee and lizard, female. - Monkeys: Ucata (?) a two headed eagle (gavilán), male. - Birds: Repao ("beautiful person") harpy eagle, female. It is unclear whether these are conceptualized as four distinct other-worldly 'persons' or whether they might be understood to transform the one into the other in certain contexts. On a daily basis the master/parent of the water and the land mammal prey seem to preoccupy the Afro-Pal in a salient manner. I will thus concentrate on them. 1) The land mammals Like other people of Amazonia, the Airo-Pai understand that in the other-world and in the mythic time the land mammals are 'people'. In mythology, the land mammals (like peccary, ant eater and agouti) were people but the person Moon "spoiled" them by transforming them into animals, as the Airo-Pai say (see Chapter 4, Cipolletti 1988:31). In the other-world the animals still have human shape, but when they enter the forest into 'this side' of reality they become "just animals" (airoco), as the Airo-Pai put it. Of all the land mammals, the white lipped peccary (ssé) takes the most important position. The Airo-Pai often compare themselves to peccary because these are said to live "organized" in bands and follow a leader (the animal head of the horde). But, unlike proper people,

the peccary are held to be the epitome of stupidity. These ideas are explicitly expressed in the exegesis of the shamanic chant aimed at requesting the release of prey in the forest

from the 'master/parent of the white lipped peccary' (ssE macwafle). As usual, the indigenous exegesis is given in brackets. The peccary's son 1 2 3

We come, us young forest women (these are the peccary talking) We come laughing (the peccary walk in the forest making noises and rejoicing) We prepare manioc beer (don't you see that the peccary live covered with mud and drink from the puddles? That dirty water they call it 'manioc beer'!) 4 We young women 5 We come singing and clicking our little boxes In our palms (what really happens is that the peccaries grumble but to them this is nice music) 6 Us young women 7 We come laughing loudly 8 Shouting and clicking our little boxes (don't you see that those heedless never walk straight and go round making circles?) 9 A very tight blanket (the peccary say that they put a blanket on, but the truth is that they make a hole in the earth and sleep there on the spot, without a proper house) 189

10 We build up a tent for the night and we laugh Inside It (this is how the peccaries call the earth they remove for sleeping) 11 Our aromatic plant nu,u (ciperacae) releases a pleasint smell (the peccary call a perfume what is a stinking gland!) 12 We come by the path following our head 13 Our mugs full of yo'co (paulllnnl2) (the peccary call 'mugs' of yo'co what is in reality their footprints filled with rain water) 14 We come laughing and clicking our little boxes In our palms 15 We talk to you, bead to head (the head of the peccary band speaks to the head of the Airo-Pai community) 16 We are young women 17 We come to accompany you (they say that they want to marry the men, they want to be good wives) 18 We take our brooms and sweep up the floor nicely 19 We clean the house nicely (they say this because in the space where the peccary rest for the night in the forest there is not a leaf left, they remove them all by wallowing in earth) 20 We have already arrived. Oscar, Huajoya, 1989) This song is said to convey the words of the peccary 'who' present themselves as good-looking 'young women'. Their wandering in the forest parallels the life of careful housekeepers: preparing drink, cleaning the house and wearing perfumes. The exegesis, however, ridicules the peccary 'who' assume that they are 'women' when in fact they are "just animals", living in the mud. They are indeed depicted as grotesque. The last part of the song refers to the meeting between the head of the peccary's horde and the shaman, and it states that the peccary 'women' are willing to marry the men. The prey are thus willing 'wives' to their hunters. As in the case of human weddings, it is the peccary 'women' who are said to desire marriage. Reichel-Dolmatoff (1971:15) argues that in Desana thought (Eastern-Tukanoan) hunting is intimately linked with "the sexuality and the fertility" of game animals. The Desana 'master of the animals' (Vaf-mahs) is a phallic being 'who' fertilizes the prey under the request of the Desana shaman (payé)4. Among the Airo-Pai, the humans themselves are expected to accept the peccary 'women' in marriage and thus take part in the reproduction of this species. Similarly, the agouties

are also said to be 'wives' and the hunting traps used to capture them are regarded as a 'hammock' where hunter and agouti lie together (see myth of the origin of bunting charms, Cipolletti 1988:93). It should be noted that the link between marriage and the

4Several authors have remarked that sexual symbolism pervades bunting magic and shamanism of Amazonian peoples. See, Brown (1986:67-96), Kensinger (1983) and Descola (1986). 190

hunt is not applicable to all prey. To my knowledge it is elaborated only concerning the land mammals5. 1 now turn to an examination of fishing. 2) The fish By contrast to the land mammals, fish are not regarded to be other-worldly people, but rather they are said to be the corn ears of the anaconda Afiapeque6. In the other-world, fish have vegetable attributes. This is consistent with the mythic identity of fish that are said to have originated from a forest creeper (see Cipolletti 1988). The following shamanic chant is aimed at propitiating the abundance of fish in the rivers and the protection of Aflapëque. As usual the indigenous exegesis is given in brackets. The fishing sons Inside of the river (Inside the rivers there are villages similar to those existing here on earth) 2 I come to see standing 3 I come to see, standing, the river Inside the water (inside the river there are rivers as well where I fish) 4 Cupucupucupucupu (this is the sound of the water when it moves) 5 I am watching, straight 6 The fish swimming up river 7 Water river space (it looks like an empty little house) 8 Watery space 9 I am standing watching the fish swimming up river 10 I am watching a small river 11 While they swim up the river 12 I throw my hook with a cricket in order to fish 13 I am fishing in the watery space 14 I walk looking around 15 I throw a cricket to the fish

5The information I gathered concerning the hunt of monkeys and birds is too vague to be conclusive but it should not be assumed that these are treated like the land mammals because: 1) the hunting technologies differ, 2) in mythic times monkeys were not 'people', but rather they derived from the tail of the old Airo-Pai (see Chapter 1). Before the introduction of the shooting gun, monkeys and birds were captured with tree traps and blow guns (although the Airo-Pai say that they rarely used blow guns because they did not know how to prepare hunting poison; this had to be obtained by trade with neighbouring groups). Among the Jivaro Achuar, for instance, monkeys are said to be the hunter's 'brothers in-law' (Descola 1986:263). 6similar symbolism is reported by Colson and Armellada (1989) for the Carib Kapon and Pemon. 191

I fish, sitting 16 17 Watery space, I am fishing, sitting 18 I see the cuji fish (hople,yth,inus unitceniatus) swimming up river The prey are swimming up river, I catch pacu fish (myleus sp.) 20 I see 19 mahuanso fish (brycon coxeyl sp.) swimming up river 21 I am fishing to eat 22 Watery space 23 Come to see 24 shing with a hook I walk looking around 25 26 Running, I look around 27 There Is another house too (this is the house where the anaconda lives) 28 And as It Is there hook at It 29 Entering It, I stand up watching 30 A house full of piled up corn ears (the maize is piled up in baskets made up of palm leaves and put on top of a shelf under which the anaconda is lying) 31 Standing looking Ailapique (anaconda) 32 A bamboo stick (this is the anaconda's tail) 33 It is hitting, It Is falling down (the anaconda hits the piled up maize with its tail; 34 the maize ears fall down to the floor. In her house the fish looklike maize) 35 The marie all over the floor (these are the fish that the anaconda gives to the shaman so that the people may fish and eat) 36 Allapëque (anaconda) is lying on the floor 37 I climb up onto its body by Its tail I walk and then Ijump down (I walk along all her body from its tail to its head, 38 then I jump down over her head) 39 When I jump, I look 40 When I jump, I look standing to the big eyes of its face (after jumping down, I turn to its face and look at its eyes. They are so big they seem like mirrors) 41 I am looking while It Is lying 42 Looking at them, they are lamps 43 looking at the eyes ehue ehue (this is the sound the eyes make because they are like lamps) 44 I look while it lies on the floor Its big mouth is lying 45 I am passing by, watching It 46 I also climb up another one (I continue walking and I climb onto the body of 47 another anaconda) 48 Tan tan tan I climb up (this is the sound it makes when I climb up the anaconda) 49 When I arrive to Its head I jump down and I look at it I go running to see 50 51 I see a door I pass through It to another house 52 I am also watching, standing, I am going out 53 I went running to see 54 All by my self I am waiting 55 56 All by my self I am looking (Liberato, Huajoya, 1989) 192

This song and its exegesis are both in the first person. By contrast to the peccary's song, there are no grotesque allusions. The shaman tells of his trip into the "watery space" (siaya deoto) where he finds internal rivers and catches fish with a hook and cricket as a bait. He then enters the house of Aflapëque where the fish have the shape of corn ears. Aflapëque has 'corn' (that is fish) piled up over her hearth in big baskets (which is the typical corn storing place in Afro-Pal houses). To my knowledge this symbolism concerns the small and medium size fish only, whereas bigger water prey are given separate elaborations (not discussed in this thesis). It is possible that the link between the corn ears and the fish may be based on the morphological resemblance between fish scale and corn grains. The convertibility between fish and corn suggests that fish is seen as legitimate meat that is devoid of the strong cannibalistic implications of mammal's meat. Supporting this point, it should be noted that corn and fish are the food eaten by the spirits of the dead (unripe-people) in the after-life (see Chapter 3). The episode about the shaman walking on the Anaconda's body from tail to head and then looking into its eyes is highly esoteric. The short and vague indigenous exegesis shows that the notions here might be too complex to be explained in simple words. By comparison with the Eastern-Tukanoan material, I suggest that this episode could be seen as external vomiting and a metonynucal form of birth. S Hugh-Jones (1979:217) observes that among the Barasana the capability of anacondas to vomit their prey in one piece is understood to be a form of giving birth (for instance the primal anaconda ancestors vomited the first members of each sib in the creation times). The Afro-Pal symbolism of fishing might then be linked to uterine birth and the corn-related nature of fish would be consistent with this point (see Chapter 3). Regardless of my interpretation, it should be said that Aflapquë being a nurturing feature and the fish are said to be her gift of food (corn) to the Aim-Pal. c) The gift of the masters/parents of the prey Like gardening (examined in the last chapter), hunting and fishing are seen to involve the establishment of 'social' relationships between the humans and the spirits. Whereas the plants are said to belong to the gardener who "looks after" them, the prey are said to be 'raised' by their other-worldly master/parent 'who' then gives them away to the humans upon the request of the shamans. Therefore, the prey are not seen to be 'produced' by the humans, but rather they are appropriated by the hunter (fisherman) with legitimacy because of the gift made by their other-worldly master/parent. For the 193

land mammals, the gift of prey takes the form of marriage initiated by the prey themselves. For the fish, the gift of prey is directly conceived as a gift of raw vegetable food (the corn ears). SECTION 2: THE SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF HUNTING AND FISHING In this section I will examine the social organization of hunting and fishing. I will not focus on techniques and yields because these have been described by Vickers for the Airo-Pai (Secoya) of Ecuador (1979, 1982, 1984, 1989). Being a female anthropologist, I will describe the impact of bunting and fishing from the point of view of those who remain in the settlement. Normally, hunting and fishing are carried out singly using western weapons: rifles and fish hooks7. Sometimes women accompany their husbands to the forest to assist them in carrying the meat back home (and to have sexual intercourse). Some hunting expeditions may last a week or so. However, the Aim-Pal explicitly say that women should not be made to walk too much in the forest because this would cause them to loose weight and endanger their capability for having children. Men are also responsible for most of the fishing expeditions, although women also catch fish. The Aim-Pal have several fishing techniques but the most common are fishing with a line and hook from a canoe and fish poisoning. In general, fishing is a less solitary activity than hunting and men and women tend to fish together more often than they hunt with one another. During the dry season, the entire community (men, women and children) gather for fishing with poison (eo) in small water courses. Everyone catches as many fish as possible. The fish belong to the person who catches them, regardless of whether this may be a child or an adult man or woman. On average, half of the hunting and fishing expeditions are unsuccessful and tedious. Many times, a man leaves for the forest alone at dawn and returns in the late afternoon, hungry, exhausted, soaked to the bones and empty handed. His wife and children do their best to hide their disappointment, but the light plantain soup taken for dinner is no consolation. After a bath, his wife examines his skin looking for parasites. He may then play with his children and tell his neighbours what a hard day he had: several hours of canoeing, walking and following animal footsteps that led nowhere. When the hunt is successful the reception at home is always festive as the entire community gathers on the

7In the past, peccary were hunted with spears communally. 194

shore to observe the animals. While the spouses clean the meat together sitting in their canoe, young boys bring their fishing lines and try to catch the fish that assemble to eat the guts that are thrown in the river. After the meal, men and women listen to the vivid stories of the proud hunter. Carrying the meat back home, however, can be a real burden. In addition, insects and worms from the dead animals' body might enter the hunter's sldn and produce infections if not taken out immediately. Although they are excellent forest treckers, the Airo-Pai often complain that the forest has excessive vegetation and that they usufferN when having to make long journeys. Thorns enter their feet, swamps render the walking particularly unp1eacint and contaminate their skin with disease. Attention must always be paid as poisonous animals and obstacles are to be avoided. In addition, the fear of entering the territory of a umonster (huatz) by mistake is always present. For instance, any sound that is judged to be strange is attributed to the monsters that are said to live inside the big lupuna (chorisia sp.) trees. a) The double circulation of meat: raw and cooked Unlike vegetables, which are communally distributed only after culinary preparation, meat circulates twice: first raw and then cooked, and both stages are intimately linked. Let's first look at the movements of raw meat. When a man brings meat back home, the animal's body is cut and cleaned by his wife alone if it is small game like a monkey or an aguti. Large animals are cleaned and cut by both spouses together. Then, the raw meat is distributed to the other married couples of the settlement. It should be remarked that this is a unilateral 'distribution' from the hunter and his wife towards the other conjugal units of the settlement and the hunter and his wife always keep a larger portion of raw meat for themselves. No raw meat is distributed when the game is very small in which case the wife begins the cooking at once. Both spouses have a say in the decision about to whom meat should be given8 . Usually, when there is a large animal, like peccary, the husband is more involved in the distribution process, otherwise his wife makes the decisions and distributes the meat alone. Both spouses try to avoid upsetting the other by neglecting affines, although discrepancies and domestic rows may occur. The proper way, my informants insisted, is to talk things over (and the reality normally conforms to this

'The hunter owns the skin of peccary and deer. Concerning the rare occasions when meat is sold, the husband has stronger claims over raw and smoked meat which is then said to belong to him personally. The money or goods acquired from the river traders in return for the meat also belong to him personally. 195

ideal). Women tend to hand over the meat to other women while men tend to give it to other men, but this is not a strict rule. The important point is that raw meat is given only to married people of either sex, and that the meat received by one of the spouses is regarded as belonging to the couple as a unit. In addition, the raw meat given is intended for immediate preparation and consumption, and I have never seen or heard of anyone selling or giving away a piece of raw meat received from another person. Who is given meat and how frequently is a flexible matter. Both spouses have duties towards married kin and affines, but meat is also given to the other married couples of the community. Normally, a piece of raw meat is given to each of the immediate married kin of both spouses, which include: their parents, their married children and their married siblings. Outside the circle of immediate kin, the network of distribution is flexible and one does not always give raw meat to everyone in the settlement. The actual patterns of meat distribution depend on the closeness of the interpersonal relationship between the people involved (whether kin or affines). The married couples with whom the hunter and his wife share the house are always given larger portions of meat than the other people of the settlement, regardless of whether this may be the wife's or the husband's kin. Concerning sibling sets, women always make sure that their sisters receive a portion of raw meat whereas the solidarity between brothers and cross-sex siblings is less. When they live in the same community, co-parents-in-law are another important element of meat distribution, for especially co-mothers-in-law always give raw meat to each other. Raw meat is not owned by the conjugal unit for very long, because it is soon redistributed to the other married couples of the community after cooking. When the raw meat is distributed, at that moment (no matter if it is late in the evening) each woman who has received a portion and the hunter's wife as well begin the cooking at her own house. When several women share the same house, each of them prepares her own recipe with the meat she has received. The hearth is generally big enough to accommodate several cooking pots. If a woman considers that she has plenty of meat she may cook part of it and the rest is smoked by her husband (the smoking process is a man's task). When the meat dishes are ready (after one or two hours), each woman including the hunter's wife, offers a portion of her cooked food to each of the other women to whom she normally offers food. Each portion is constituted by a full enamelled individual

196

plate9 . The cook offers the portion personally to each of the other married women to whom she generally gives food (she goes from house to house as necessary). She hands the plate to the other woman who pours its contents in one of her own enamelled plates and then hands its back (generally after rinsing it in clean water). Then the cook returns to her house and serves another portion to be offered in the same way to another female mate. It should be noted that mother gives to daughter and vice-versa, although the women who live in the same house tend to share their meals directly rather than mutually offering each other portions of cooked food (see below). All these movements of cooked food from woman to woman take place relatively quickly because everybody in the community is eager to eat. Since each woman who has received raw meat (including the hunter's wife) prepares her own meat dish and offers a portion of it to each of the other women, it is clear that the amount and variety of cooked food that circulates at that time across the community is impressive. At the end, each woman has several portions of recipes prepared by her female mates and the rest of the food that she herself prepared. At this stage the meal begins (see description below), and the food prepared by one's self and received from the others is eaten by the couple and their children. Therefore, the inter-female offering of cooked meat is a means of distributing the dishes to all the members of each of the conjugal units involved. In this way, everybody eats everybody else's food as well as their own food. These mutual offerings of cooked dishes last as many days as each woman considers that she has enough food to share out with the other conjugal units and still be able to feed her own husband and children (up to three days after a big hunt on average). As one can imagine, this communal pattern of multiple and mutual sharing of cooked food means that the meat is eaten fairly quickly. And indeed, the amount of meat eaten during the days following a big hunt (or fishing expedition) is impressive. I calculated that an adult person may eat up to one kilo of meat a day. In addition, when several hunters bring meat back home the movements of raw and cooked meat become even more complicated because each of the conjugal units distributes its raw meat to the others. The more raw meat that is brought into the community, the more of it that is distributed, then cooked and re-distributed by and between the women of the community.

9These are bought from the river traders. 197

C)

Mutual gifts of cooked meat The inter-female offerings of cooked meat follows the same social logic of the inter-

female offerings of bread examined in the last chaptec it is de-centralized, highly personalized and rooted in the valuation of mutual inter-female generosity. In both cases, the woman who cooks is the one who offers her food because cooking and the giving of one's food are intrinsically linked and define the moral female person. The stress is not put on the 'reciprocity' of the gifts, but on the mutuality of the acts of giving (we both give to each other, we both accept from each other). Like the gift of bread, the gift of cooked meat is not devoid of competition. Rather, the movements of cooked meat set up an arena where the married women compete over cooking skills and at the same time continuously re-define the closeness of their interpersonal relationships. Women always prefer their own food and they are very critical of the quality of the food prepared by others, especially if they are not a sister, mother or daughter. They look scrupulously for traces of blood that would reveal a lack of cooking hygiene and make the dish unsuitable for consumption. Like the lack of generosity with bread, the lack of generosity with cooked meat is always phrased in terms of one's children being deprived of food and it is understood as a refusal of common kinship ties through one's children. By contrast, the women who give each other food, and eat each other food, see themselves as contributing to the feeding of each other's children. Finally, like the gift of bread, the gift of cooked food also involves men because they provided the raw meat that enabled the women to cook and share out their food. The sharing of cooked food reinstitutes the unilateral distribution of raw meat from the hunter and his wife to the other married couples of the community. It is thus a concrete manifestation of the co-operation between community members and between spouses. Although the preparation and offering of cooked meat is entirely in the hands of the women, normally they act in accordance with their husbands's desires. As I have already said, both spouses avoid upseting the other byeglecting affines and other obligations. Quarrels may occur, but normally the distribution of cooked food goes on smoothly. It should be noted that the lack of generosity with both raw and cooked meat is particularly problematic when the couple has no meat of its own and is entirely dependent on the meat given by the others. Unlike the crops which are (normally) produced by all the

198

conjugal units in sufficient quantities'°, raw meat is unevenly acquired depending on the hunter's luck that day and his individual abilities. The communal sharing out of raw and cooked meat are palliatives to the failure of securing meat on one's own. But it cannot be seen as the means by which some men exploit the working force of other men because all the married men effectively hunt and fish (even older men). In addition, the hunter and his wife always keep a larger share for themselves and they are never alienated of their own portion. Men are very proud of their skills as meat providers as are women as cooks and givers of meat, and the communal sharing out of raw and cooked meat works well because it is understood as a mutual process. It becomes clear that in the Airo-Pai case, the duty to provide raw meat for kin and affines cannot be interpreted in terms of the unilateral dominance of men upon women and of father-in-law upon son-in-law as it is the case for other Amazonian groups". Firstly, this is because parents and married children offer raw and cooked meat to each mutually. Secondly, because the raw meat given is also shared out after the cooking, and therefore everybody eats from it. In other words, the offering of raw meat does not entail alienation, but rather it means that raw meat is given to another person who will cook it so that this cooked meat may then be eaten by everybody. In particular, when a son inlaw gives raw meat to his parents in-law, cooked meat is then shared out between the two conjugal units. In addition, the parents in-law normally invite the couple to eat together with them from the same plate. Usually, the parents of the son in-law are also invited to share this meal. In this way, the two couples of co-parents-in-law, their children and their grand-children eat together from the same plate. So, rather than merely fulfilling the duty to provide raw meat, they mutually provide raw and cooked meat for one another and by eating from the same dish they forge trust and intimacy among themselves, a statement of their common kinship through their children and grandchildren.

'°There are important exceptions to this. For instance when a new couple settles in the village they are entirely dependent on other couples who allow them to harvest from their gardens until they have productive gardens of their own. In case of natural catastrophes, such as floods, people may be allowed to harvest from other people's gardens. "See for instance Mentore (1987) on the Waiwai, Rosengren (1987) on the machiguenga. This point will be discussed further below. 199

SECTION 3: THE PEPPER-POT Before looking at the organization of the meal I will present the basic principles of the Airo-Pai cuisine since this transformation of substances is crucial to the communal sharing out of food. Airo-Pai women are fine cooks and they know a wide range of recipes (see appendix 2). Cooking is not only a means of preparing edible food but a way of planning for the consumption, conservation and distribution of meat. The Airo-Pai cooking methods are time-efficient and women do not need to cook a new dish at each meal but rather often re-cook the remainder of previous ones. Here I describe a typical transformation of raw meat that lead 'the cumulative preparation of the Afro-Pal 'pepperpot' as days go by and the meat is repeatedly re-cooked. On the day of a successful hunt (or fishing) and upon the distribution of raw meat each conjugal unit proceeds with the cooking. About half of the raw meat is smoked (minimum 24 hours) and the other half is boiled in clear water with some fresh chilies (capsicwn sp.). Salt is generally added to the dish after the serving. The meat is boiled for at least

an hour. This first meal consists of a clear broth with big chunks of boiled meat eaten with bread. The food that is not eaten is kept inside the cooking pot in a cool place and will be re-cooked for the next meal. At the next meal more fresh chilies and black chili sauce (negpia) are added to the meat and broth. As the meat is re-cooked the chunks disintegrate and mix with the broth. The amount of meat eaten per person declines as people rub the increasingly thicker sauce onto bread rather than eating entire chunks of meat. At this point the sauce may be transformed into a gruel, or not. Meat gruel is made by mixing grated plantain or ground corn into the sauce. These gruels may be re-heated two or three times and at each time new chili is added. The gruel is eaten with bread and the amount of meat taken per person depends on how much plantain or corn it contains. Other non-gruel recipes include the use of the cultivated renealmia fruits (uncuisi, shivango) that add a tomato-like complexion to the stews and the green pojo leaves (especially for monkey meat) that grow wild in the gardens. Whether it is a gruel or not, the last meal of the pepper-pot is generally a very thick and spicy sauce, a thin layer of which is rubbed onto bread just for the taste.

12Bk chili sauce (nec pia) is made with fresh chilies boiled for hours in manioc tubers extract. It is a dark, thick and spicy sauce that looks like the western tomato concentrate. Diluted in water it is the most important spice used by the Airo-Pai for all sorts of meat. Rubbed onto bread, it is taken as a snack. 200

When the pepper-pot made with the raw meat is finished (generally after two or three days) a woman prepares the smoked meat following a similar programme. For the meals, smoked meat is always boiled in stews. Cold, it is eaten only as a snack. The pepper-pots from both raw and smoked meat are efficient methods for the distribution and conservation of meat over several days as meat disintegrates in the sauce and the pepper prevents it from decomposition. The gruels in particular enable a woman to prepare enough food to offer to the other women of the community even with a small quantity of meat. For instance, during the days of scarcity, the whole community may eat from two small fishes prepared in gruel. Cooking technique is thus a way of managing the resources of meat and vegetable and the quantities of food to be shared out within the community. This economic role is in the hands of the women. SECTION 4: TH MEALS

Like the cooking and the offering of cooked vegetables and meat, the daily meals are orchestrated by the married women. Although normally each married woman prepares her own food, the married women who live in the same house may also rotate their cooking responsibilities when they require it. The people who live in the same house always take their meals together from the same plates. Although normally each conjugal units in the house prepares its own food, the meal is thus a house-based institution. The Airo-Pai are very concerned about the dangers linked to food, and the social ordering of meals is filled with significanc with regard to indigenous ideas about trust and gender. Cooked food is shared out between community members, but only the people who live under the same roof eat together from the same plates on a daily basis. Taking a meal together creates intimacy, and the more people share their meals the more the social and physical ties between them are seen to grow.

a) Description of the meal The Airo-Pai take two meals: one in the morning (at about 8.AM) and the other in the evening (about 19.PM). Sometimes, another meal is taken at midday. Snacks are eaten at any time during the day, in particular by women since men do not spend the day at home and they take no food with them to hunt and fish. The characteristic constitution of the meals is as follows: one or several meat dishes are eaten with bread, and then a fruit drink is taken (generally sweet plantain soup). Thus, the meals combine garden and 201

forest products, both in solid and liquid form. The evening meals are the most elaborated and gather all the inhabitants of the house. Often people from other houses are invited to eat meat. It should be pointed out that the guests always bring their own bread with them. This shows that the invitation to share a meal concerns the meat dish prepared by the host and not her bread. Any visitor who happens to pop in at that moment is also offered food. Depending on the degree of intimacy and the circumstances, the unexpected visitor may be called to join in the circle and eat from the same plate as the others, or he or she may be given an individual portion of meat wrapped in a piece of bread. Here, I describe a typical evening meal in an Airo-Pai house. Cooking begins in the late afternoon (l7pm. approximately). While the meat is being cooked, the men play foothall in the grass field and the women cheer them on from time to time. When the meat dish is ready, each woman distributes portions of her food to the other married women of the settlement. Then the cook calls all the people from her house (and the occasional guests) to eat. As they arrive, they wash their hands with water from a jar kept for that purpose. The women sit on the floor by the hearth cross-legged forming a circle while the men squat at the margins of this circle'3. The cook sits in the circle of women, her cooking pot by her side. She puts an empty enamelled dish and a tray for the bread on the floor at the centre of the circle. The meat dishes received from the other women are also put there (sometimes they are kept to be eaten at the next meal). If there are several married women in the house who have prepared food, each of them serves her own dish. Children between the age of five and twelve are usually given a separate plate and bread tray for themselves, and they sit in a circle apart from the adults. Small children are encouraged to eat with their own hands under the supervision of both their parents or an elder sibling. The cook serves her meat dish on a plate with a spoon and orders one of her children to bring one or two breads on a tray (the bread is kept on a special shelf or inside a pot). Each person cuts a layer of bread and uses it as a personal spoon to eat the meat and sauce. The food is eaten with the finger tips and people are careful not to let anything taken from the plate to fall back onto it. Bones are spat on the floor. Usually, the atmosphere is highly convivial and informal. Seniority is not delineated between men or women. They all chat, joke and laugh as they

3According to my informants, in the old long houses meals where often (but not ' always) taken communally. The women prepared and served the food, but men and women ate in two separated circles. 202

eat. When the content of the dish is finished, everybody waits until the cook serves more food from her cooking pot. She selects the pieces to be eaten and is careful not to serve all the best bits at once. Likewise, when the bread is finished, she orders one of her children to bring one more bread from the stock Being hungry myself, I was often made aware of the cool control she keeps over her food. Although she serves in this apparently restrictive way, she ends up serving plentifully. Each person eats at their own pace and stops eating individually when they feel satisfied. As long as there are people around the plate and tray, the cook continues to serve meat and bread. Men are usually the first to stop. They say politely 'I have finished eating ( 'anLt flni "), and stand up, wash their

hands and rest in one of the hammocks, continuing to participate in the conversation. Women eat for a longer time and the cook is always the one who eats the last bits on the plate. The food served is never put back into the cooking pot, and the food that remains in the cooking pot is kept until it is recooked for a further meal. Then the cook (or an unmarried daughter) prepares a sweet fruit drink and serves it individually one by one to each of the persons present. After the meal, people visit each other's houses and prepare the mosquito nests for the night. The crockery is usually washed by the women (or their daughters) on the next morning. The social order of the meals follows gender lines and women occupy a dominant position. Indisputably, the central figure is the woman who cooks and serves. She prepares the food, organizes and feeds the people and is also the one who eats the most. In serving her meat and bread by instalments she asserts her control over her food and the people whom she is feeding. However, she is also generous and does not decide the quantity to be eaten by each person. Rather, each person eats as much as they wish. This serving manner requires that there should be more food in the cooking pot than the people can actually eat during that one meal. Such an over-production of cooked food contributes to the creation of an impression of abundance that is highly appreciated by the Afro-Pal. The women are also the centre of animation. Although everybody talks informally regardless of age and sex, most of the conversation is done by the women. After eating, in particular, men sit in the nearby hammocks listening to the women who continue to eat, and they speak little. Men also eat more quickly and less than women. In general, they maintain a certain restraint with food that women do not have (especially women in child-bearing age). As I have remarked in Chapter 4, how much one should eat is a 203

matter elaborated upon gender in aesthetics and ideas about procreation. By taking their meals in a gender-differentiated style, men and women are aware that they should build up gendered bodies capable of working and reproducing in particular ways. Men of all ages are expected to be frugal in order to develop slim and muscular bodies (when they are invited to have a meal at a neighbour's, they eat even less than usual). In addition, the shamans should be as thin as possible in order to "fly TM easily to the otherworld. For this reason, they avoid eating greasy meats. By contrast, women of childbearing age should accumulate fat and be plump in order to do the heavy work of pregnancy and breast-feeding. As I have already noted, the Airo-Pai are very preoccupied with female appetite. On the one band women should eat enough to build up body weight; on the other hand they should not be so greedy as to deprive their husbands and kin of the food they prepare. Body shape is not only a question of personal aesthetics, for the Airo-Pai it is a crucial element of procreation and gender agency. A slim woman and a fat man could not do the work expected from their respective genders. Finally, since men and women both eat the food prepared by their own conjugal unit and by the other conjugal units of the sefflement, their gendered bodies are built up with the food produced, cooked and shared out between the members of the community. The community is thus instrumental in the production of gendered bodies able to produce and reproduce. b) Eating and trusting Like other Amazonian peoples, the Airo-Pai associate many dangers with food (and drink) which must be scrupulously avoid. Threats of "contamination" (seaye) come from a variety of sources: the animals killed, the cooking process, the person who cooks and all the people who touch the food, especially those who take food from the same plate. The shamanic sessions are aimed at securing the benevolence of the master/parent of the prey so that the flesh eaten may not be harmful. The Shamanistical complex was surrounded by elaborate dietary codes which prescribed and prohibited certain types of food according to age, state and sex 14 . Although it seems that the dietry restriction are

'4Currently many of the restrictions linked to the taking of hallucinogenics seem to have been abandoned. This is not the appropriate context to draw the inventory of AiroPai dietary restrictions (see Vickers 1989:221; for the Western-Tukanoan Siona see Langdon 1975). But, it should be noted that fatty meat was considered to be particularly damaging to the drinker of hallucinogenics because it was said to cause vomiting and to 204

currently relaxed, precautions are still taken for pregnant women and their husbands, menstruating women, young children and elderly and sick people. Sweet plantain soup is the 'safe' food that can be eaten in all cases. As I have said in Chapter 4, for the Airo-Pai eating the food prepared by another person is an act of trust because they see that attributes (physical and moral, negative and positive) are passed on through food. Thus, the people who eat the same food make themselves similar to each other. It is women who play out the difficult development of trust through food within the community. Women's role as feeders also reflects well on their husband's abilities to produce and to secure the production of food through shamanism. The dangerous side of food, however, is never forgotten. The food prepared and touched by those whom one does not want to be 'alike' (either because of a fear of illness or because of an ongoing interpersonal problem) is seen to be dangerous and is secretly thrown in the river. The circle of trust, hence, is not homogeneous throughout the settlement, but rather it is constantly changing as the individual goes through different stages and as inter-personal conflicts erupt and are overcome. It seems surprising that a people who stress the dangers of 'contamination' through cooked food prepared and touched by others should organize consumption in such a way that one is always at risk. This is, I suggest, a specific Airo-Pai solution to a conundrum which echoes other Amazonian peoples with a deep concern with the safe self and dangerous other. Overing (1981: 161) has argued that underlying all the dissimilar social structures of lowland South America is a single philosophy that society can only exist if there is proper mixing among things that are different from one another. Her argument is persuasive and useful to an understanding of the organization of production and consumption in the Airo-Pai community since, as we have seen, at each stage of the economic processes the mixing with dangerous difference is played out in order to achieve the production of food and to feed the self and others with it.

The people who share the same house develop an even tighter circle of trust and 'sameness' between themselves because they eat the same food and from the same plate on a daily basis. As I have said, each married woman in the house cooks her own food which all the inhabitants of the house eat together. However, they may also rotate their cooking responsibilities if required. The co-operation between the married women who share a house is particularly important when one of them is ill, menstruating (and after

render the shaman too heavy to 'fly' to the other-world. 205

birth) or when she is pregnant. If there are no other women in the house who are able to cook, a man will cook and serve food to his menstruating wife (and after birth). However, I have never seen a man offering his food to the other women or men of the community. Normally, he only feeds his own wife and children. When a woman menstruates, thus, the gender roles are partially inverted. A man avoids the danger of contamination with the feminine attribute of menstruation by enacting the work of a woman: cooking and serving while his menstruating wife will temporarily abandon her feeder role and remain at the receiving end. As we see, the organization of consumption takes form through complicated involutions the advantages and dangers of being 'alike' and being 'different'. SECTION 5: WOMEN. MEN AND COMMENSALITY The analysis above has a bearing on the debates about Amazonian economies. The literature on food-sharing is abundant but the majority is focused on the circulation of raw meat. For instance, Siskind (1973) considers that the culturally produced scarcity of women creates a situation in which men compete to gain access to female sexuality through the exchange of naturally scarce meat, a male produce. The link drawn by this author between sexuality and food is interesting, however, in the Airo-Pal case, the gift of raw meat cannot be seen as 'exchange' of 'meat for sex' because it takes place through the complex mechanism of cooked food sharing of which the whole community is a beneficiary. Furthermore, food (meat and vegetable) is associated with the building up of both the male and female bodies which are the locus of sexuality. Thus, for the AfroPai, the cooked food produced and eaten by the couple (and the community) is not 'exchanged' for sexuality, but rather it creates the gendered fertile sexualities. Most authors remark that movements of cooked food (vegetable and meat) within the community are intense and that they constitute a crucial feature of daily life, but they rarely give a precise description of them. Mentore's (1987) examination of Waiwai economy is one exception and he stresses that production, distribution and consumption must be looked at as a whole in order to understand comprehensively each of these fundamental elements (Mentore 1991). He demonstrates that 'in order that consumption be safe and correct, it must be preceded by mutual exchange - the metaphor of kinship duties and obligations'. He describes how cooked meat is passed from individual household to the village leader's house where the communal meals are taken. He points 206

out that "the giving and acceptance of meals engages a constant cycle of reciprocity that is, in Waiwai social metaphor, the hallmark of human society" (Mentore 1987:519). Like for the Waiwai, Airo-Pai production, distribution and consumption are tightly knitted together, and the network of mutual gifts of food stand for the making of social life itself. Unlike the Waiwai, the Afro-Pal do not take daily communal meals because the meal is house-based (although the food eaten also comes from the other houses in the settlement as well). Furthermore, the Waiwai are remarkably different from the Afro-Pal concerning gender relations. Mentore states that the ethnographic situation reveals that women are the transformers of men's raw materials (meat) into useful social products (food) but it is men "who use the distribution of social product for their own political end" (1987:5 19). He also specifies that father-in-law appropriates the work of his son-in-law (raw meat and assistance) through the control he has over his daughter. These arguments are not appropriate to the Afro-Pal case. The Afro-Pal stress the mutuality of services between parents-in-law and children-in-law and Airo-Pai women are effective social actors in their own right. The preparation and circulation of cooked food are in their hands and the inter-female network of food-sharing is at the core of the construction of a 'safe' community of kin. The organization of the daily meals is also in the hands of the women who openly play out the control that they have over their food. Airo-Pai women are, indeed, magnificent feeders and in being so they also demonstrate their husbands' and their community's abilities to be productive and to form a co-operative unit'5. Airo-Pai economic processes cannot be understood by privileging one relationship over the others. In order to grasp Airo-Pai community organization we must recognize women's participation as public and autonomous, and their link to individual men and to inter-male relationships. Airo-Pai men and women construct community upon a complex conception and practice of cross-sex and same-sex links, and all these links are at once fully social and political. Offering and serving food are prestigious activities that define a woman's status as a generous person. A man also derives prestige from his wife's feeding skill, because her feeding shows that he is a productive man. The community as a whole becomes prestigious in the eyes of the other communities because of the productive co-operation among its members. In Airo-Pai terms, a prestigious settlement

'5For a similar discussion on female control over the sphere of food distribution see for instance Johnson (1978:222) on the Machiguenga, MacCallum (1989) on the Cashinahua, Viveiros de Castro (1986) on the Araweté, and Townsley (1988:49) on the Yaminahua. 207

is a place where "people are living well". Nevertheless, prestige is not the most important of the Airo-Pai considerations. The Airo-Pai are concerned with whether the food that they are eating could be harmful or whether it would allow them and their children to grow healthy bodies capable of producing and enjoying more food, objects and children. As we have seen, although the giving and the acceptance of food are tantamount to making people kin and safely 'alike', these same acts entail the, danger of being contaminated with undesired attributes, physical and moral. The achievement of a balance between becoming 'alike' and maintaining difference within the members of the community, and especially within the genders, is lived out daily in the organization of production and consumption within the community. Bringing together dangerous difference creates in the end the successful and fertile inside of the Airo-Pai community.

..,

;

^

I

1.-'

I

F.-

(fig. 22) Meat and black chili sauce

208

CONCLUSION I have shown that the Airo-Pai community is built from the inside upon a complex conceptualization and practice of cross-sex and same-sex relations. An examination of Airo-Pai idioms of personhood and gender has revealed that the notion of 'raising' is at the core of their understanding of production and sociality both in 'this side' and 'the other side' of reality. The capability of 'raising' individuals constitutes a root metaphor for the responsibilities of community life and has relevance with regard to kin, effective affines and other beings of their cosmology. In their wider understanding of a multi-dimensional reality, the Airo-Pai conceptualize both the production of crops and meat in terms of a metaphorical production of 'people'. Gardening is seen as the raising of plants 'who' are 'people' in the other-world, while the animals for the hunt are said to be grown by their other-worldly 'master/parent' and then bestowed as a gift to the Airo-Pai. The manufacture of objects is also associated with the creation of 'people' and sexual processes. We have seen that the building of the communal long-house is thought of as a 'mother who' instills in the youngsters the desire to live in community and to procreate, while the male hammock and the female clay pot are seen as two complementary sexed means of 'nesting' the human foetus. In 'this side' of reality, being social from an indigenous point of view is about creating babies and making them grow into gendered adults. This is rendered possible by the proper mixing of two different and complementary genders. Men and women are equally responsible for the growth and training of their children and their gender responsibilities are conceived of in terms of making a livelihood. Thus, children can be born and grow up only if mother and father, each in her and his own way, build a 'nest', feed them and protect them. The work of growing children is based on effective affinal ties which are founded upon the actual relationship between a man and a woman. I have shown that Airo-Pai marriage cannot be seen as the link between two intermarrying "lines" or as the appropriation by a man of a woman's sexuality and labour. Airo-Pai marriage is the creation of a new couple capable of producing and enjoying food, objects and children. With this aim, the 209

parents of the bride and the groom pool their efforts in order to complete the instruction of their children and teach them how to be effectively married and make their grandchildren. While the marital relationship is the pivot of the socio-economic process, the conjugal unit does not constitute an economic atom because each stage of the economic process has individual, conjugal and communal aspects. Both cross-sex and same-sex ties are important in the whole economic process from production, distribution of raw food, culinary preparation, and distribution of cooked food, to consumption. 1 have described how the creation of an atmosphere of geniality and abundance of food are instrumental in the organization of labour and consumption. Although the community is a force of production and a unit of consumption, the organization of communal co-operation and food-sharing is de-centralized and the community is not an homogeneous unit of social interaction. Rather, each individual defines and re-defines his or her own field of social interaction over the course of life. Same-sex sibling sets are the most likely to co-operate over a long period. I have argued that the daily flow of assistance and food between the members of the community follows a social logic of 'mutuality', according to which each adult is expected, as an autonomous person, to be generous toward others. The expectation of 'mutuality' cross-cuts generations so that both parents and children (parents-in-law and children-in-law) are equally expected to co-operate with each other. Only young people cannot engage in mutual offerings of food and assistance because they are not yet able to take responsibility for work. I have shown that each gift of food is an asymmetrical transaction from giver to receiver and it is seen to be constitutive of kinship ties. The distribution of raw meat from the hunter and his wife toward the other conjugal units of the community is followed by the mutual gifts of cooked meat dishes from married woman to married woman. As the women of the settlement give each other the food that they have prepared (drink, bread and meat), they reconstitute the communal labour sharing with which this food was produced. Generosity, however, is not the unique motivation for offering food. Women also compete over cooking skills. They prefer to be feeders than to be fed and they are suspicious of other people's food. Food consumption is an area where conifict may easily 210

arise as the Airo-Pai understand that illness and certain attributes (physical and moral) can be passed on from person to person through food. To eat another person's food and especially to eat from the same plate represent the epitome of trust. If this trust is broken the cohesion between the members of the community may be threatened. If trust is enhanced, the sharing of cooked food contributes not only to the sharing of substance but also to the creation of solid affective ties between community members. As they feed their own children with the food which they have produced together and received from the other conjugal units, the adults from the community come to see themselves as a group of people who are effectively growing their children together.

211

212

GLOSSARY Airo-Pai orthography: The Airo-Pai alphabet is composed of simple and compound letters: Most of these letters can be read as in Spanish, except some which are characteristic of Airo-Pai phonology. Vowels a = Spanish a; similar to the English a as in panda e = Spanish e; similar to the English e as in set ë = similartothegermano i=Sparnshi;similartotheEnglishiasinsit o = Spanish o; similar to the English o as in Tom u = Spanish u; similar to the french ou Consonants b = varies from an English b to a p c = English k ch = Spanish ch; stronger than the English ch sound in charm d = vaires from a Spanish d to an r g = Spanish g; softer than the English g in sorghum hu = English w in wonder j = English h in how m—Englishm n - English n - like the French gn in champignon p — varies fromanEnglishptoab qu - French qu in question r - varies from Spanish rtoad $ English s t = similar to the English sound ts in tsar y = English y in yawn , i, , a, , = are nasalised sounds. a = similartotheEnglishan = similar to the English en as in envelope j = similar to the English in as in inside Q = similar to the french on as in rond = similar to the french em as in rien = similar to the Spanish un

213

ai deoye airo anque-pai aflapeque a atsaye

to raise, to transform into old/big forest white-person anaconda, master/parent of water animals bread to listen, to pay attention and to respect

cadaye cajei canihuë caye cocua concaiye cono cua- cuatsaye

a complex feeling of fear and shame kin, friend, neighbour skin and body in general to talk, to converse words, language to help drink prefix meaning 'purposeful' and good to think

dahuë daripë deoye

illness and power of sorcery village to transform, also to become good and beautiful

eja ëmë

master/parent, the one who raises man, tall

goa- goatsunco

prefix meaning 'to no purpose' and bad smelly, bad taste, repugnant

hua'i hua-paj huajëye huajoya huati hue'cosi huej aye huefia huqu hu&ocaine

meat effective affines to renew, to rest, to be saved warrior river other-worldly being with monstrous features young of the parrot (amazona sp.) wedding place, site, territory the mythical person Tapir to look for something, to fetch, to buy

insi iñacaiye iflañe iye

togive to look after to look at, to watch, to see this

jai huë'e -je jëña joya joyo jujuye

long house comparative suffix meaning 'like' unripe, green servant/child, the one who is being raised soul, personal centre of thought to cure

214

macataflë mafia matmo mente muju

master/parent of land mammals our little, item, individual the celestial realm tobacco the mythical person thunder

ncaiye neñe nomio nuni flaM

serve make woman plant of the ciparaceae sp. the mythical person Moon

oiye oje

to love, to be grateful and to respect milk

p4 paico paiye peiñe peji

person, people living, qualification of primordial beings to be, to live to be angry hallucinogen (brugmansia sp.)

quëna ra'ca repao

close, also very hard stone-like material

sëaye siaya siecoya sihuaye siore sisiye so'o

to stick onto, to contaminate river river painted with lines to rejoice garden to be organized in community far

taM tëcap tente teo toya

wisdom branch side one, alone vision, design and writing

ujajai umusi umuturu uncuquë useye

hallucinogen (brtmfelsia sp.) young of the oropendola (icteridus sp.) oropendola nest drinker to be stingy or misery

yaje yehuoye

hallucinogen (banisteriopsis caapz) to give advice

to to

female uterine juices the mythical person harpy-eagle

215

yeja yeque yeye

land, earth, territory another to desire, to want

216

APPENDIX 1: DEMOGRAPHIC DATA 1) Airo-Pai DoPulation in Peru Settlement -

population

Vencedor-huaj oya Santa Rita Nuevo San Martin Bellavista Machonta Isango Jerusalem

Total :

67 34 47 96 49 60 371

2) Stable Po pulation of Vencedor-Hua-ioya Ag•

Female

Male

0-5 6 - 10 11 - 15 16 - 20 21 - 25 26 - 30 31 - 40 41 - 50 50 - 65

10 7 3 4 2 4 1 4 1

8 4 3 4 2 2 2 5 1

Total population: 67 Main aenealoaical and marital ti.. in Vencedor-Huajoyp (adult. only) (fig.24)

217

2) Marriage, number of children and divorce Number of p.ople examined: 44 - People whose marriage was considered 'correct': 26 - People whose marriage was not quite correct: 14 (these were cases where the distance between the bride and the groom was 'too close'). - People whose marriage was considered 'incorrect': 4 (all these were cases of marriage between the children of two classificatory 'sisters'). - Cases of brothers marrying sisters (real or class.): 28 - People who have been divorced and remarry at least once: 31 - Polygamous marriages: 0 - People with more than 5 children: 6

3) Symmetrical alliance and cross-generational arrangements When symmetric alliance and the ideal form of intermarrying one set of sisters with one set of brothers cannot be fulfilled in a single generation, then a partner may be found in the next generation. For instance, I encountered the following cases: a) A man and hi. brother's son married to two sist.r. (fig.25) (c1c. s. C; c.t't* .7)

FO

-r tO

tell

d. I

218

2) Broth.r-in-lav marri.d to broth.r'. daughtsr (fig.26)

;

Lr _ e10

ro. %

219

220

API'ENDIX 2: AIRO-PAI RECIPES 1) BREAD a Manioc (bitter and sweet bread (ao' Ingredients: A whole carrying basket of one or two varieties of bitter or sweet manioc tubers. Makes around 50 units of bread. Once the tubers are peeled and washed, they are grated. The manioc mass is then squeezed in the plaited press until no more liquid pours from it. The liquid is collected in a receptacle (manioc starch accumulates in the bottom). This dry manioc mass is sieved and the flour obtained is then ready to be baked (the bits that do not go through the sieve are kept on the side). Meanwhile a circular baking pan has been heated. The fire is kept at the correct temperature by pouring water on it when required. A halfspherical gourd (of approximately 15 cm. in diameter) is filled with the manioc flour and emptied on the baking pan. The flour is spread homogenously on the pan with the hand. Then, using the round bottom of the gourd, the flour is pressed against the pan making a smooth surface (5 millimetres deep) and it is left to roast. After 5 minutes (approximately) the bread is turned on its other side using a wooden spatula, and left to cook for another 5 minutes. The units of bread accumulate in a pile on a special tray. Once the baking is finished, the units of breads are rubbed with a mixture made of manioc starch (obtained f m dry manioc juice) and bits of manioc flesh that did not go through the sieve. The starch softens the bread and these can easily be folded. Approximately half of the units of bread are left to dry under the sun. These dry units of bread may be conserved for several weeks. b Manioc and corn bread (huea ao Ingredients: half a basket of bitter manioc tubers and 25 dry corn ears (approximately). Makes around 50 bread. Once the tubers are peeled, washed and grated, the manioc mass is squeezed a little by hand and the juice collected in a container. The grain corns are ground in the wheel mill and mixed with the manioc mass. The mixed mass is sieved and the flour is then ready to bake. The baking and drying process is similar to the above, but the units of bread are not rubbed with starch. 221

c Corn and banana cakes (aocopiE) Ingredients: 20 dry corn ears and a bunch of small sweet bananas (platano manzano). Makes ten or fifteen cakes. The corn grains are ground in the wheel mill and progressively mixed with the smashed bananas. The mass is wrapped in banana leaves in order to form rectangular packets. There are two ways of cooking them: they can be baked on the bread baking pan or boiled in water.

d) Farifla manioc flour (aofaro) Ingredients: one basket of bitter or sweet manioc tubers. Makes a small basket of farina. The manioc tubers are left to decompose inside a canoe filled with water. After three to four days, the tubers are washed and grated. The mass is squeezed in the plaited press and sieved, and then roasted on a baking pan.

2) DRINKS

a) Corn beer (huea cono Ingredients: approximately 25 dry corn ears. If wanted: the juice of four or five sugar canes. Makes a big pan of drink (40 1). A big cooking pan with water and sugar cane juice (if wanted) is put to boil. The corn grains are ground, mixed with the boiling water and left to cook for 45 minutes (approximately) in order to form a liquid gruel. Then the pan is taken off the fire. Separately, a handful of corn grains is toasted on a baking pan. The toasted grains are then chewed and mixed with the gruel. The chewed toasted grains produce a chemical reaction in the gruel and precipitate the separtion between the liquid and the solids. Small corn flakes accumulate in the bottom of the pan while the liquid turn into a yellow and sweet acidic drink.

b) Sweet plantain and banana and corn soup (nuncua cono Ingredients: approximately 20 very ripen plantains or bananas of different species. Makes a big pan of drink (40 1.). There are different ways of preparing plantain soup. 222

a) Once the plantains are peeled they are boiled in water in a big sauce pan for 30 minutes (approximately). The gruel is then mixed with a special spoon. This mixture may be mixed with palm fruits (jessenia sp) or drunk alone. Another recipe is obtained by adding finely ground corn to the boiling plantains. b) The plantains are left to ripen until their skin turns black. Then they are put (with their skins) on the live charcoal and roasted. Once peeled, they are mixed in water. c Manioc beer (anso cono) (recipe learnt approximately 20 years ago from the Ouichua people). Ingredients: a basket of sweet manioc tubers and one or two sweet potatoes. Makes two or three big pans (40 1.) of fermented manioc beer. Once the tubers are peeled and washed they are boiled in water for two hours (approximately), until they reach a soft consistency. The tubers are put on a wooden receptacle and left to cool. Then, approximately 10% of the tubers are chewed and mixed with the rest. The sweet potatoes are grated, chewed and also mixed with the cooked tubers. Then, the tubers are mashed with a wooden pounder and left to ferment for two or three days inside a cooking pan covered with plantain leaves. At the moment of serving the mass is diluted in water by hand. d Peach palm fruit beer (ënë cono Ingredients: a basket of peach palm fruits (bactric gasipaes). Makes one big pan (40 1.) of fermented beer. The peach palm fruits are boiled in a big pan (for two hours approximately). The fruits are then peeled and the seed taken out and thrown away. As they are still hot the fruits are mashed in the wheel mil. Approximately 10% of this mass is then chewed and mixed with the rest. The mass is then left to ferment for a day or two and mixed in water in order to be drunkt.

e Diluted fruit extracts (raca) A variety of fruit drinks are made by squeezing fruits by hand inside a recipient with water. This technique which is known in Spanish as zapear is used for several fruits, for instance for the palm fruits of mauritiaflexuosa and jessenia. These diluted fruit extracts

'In the past, it was men who used to chew the peach palm fruits (bactris gasipaes). 223

may be mixed with sweet plantain soup or manioc flour (fariIla).

3) MEAT DISHES (fish and other meats) a) Meat broth (lzua 'I race) Big chunks of raw or smoked meat are boiled in water with a few fresh chilies (raw an smoked meat are never cooked together). Black chili sauce (nec pie) may also be added. Raw meat is generally cooked over an hour. Salt is added after the serving. The intestines are generally cooked apart, especially monkey's intestines which are relished and prepared with large quantities of black chili sauce. b) Renealmia stews (rarely done with fish) The renealmia fruits contained in a small basket (approximately one hundred fruits) are opened and the insides are boiled in a little water. After 15 minutes (approximately), the soup is sieved and the renealmia seeds are separated from the flesh and thrown away. This sauce is added to boiled meat, seasoned with fresh chilies and black chili sauce, and left to boil for over an hour. C)

Plantain gruel While the meat (raw or smoked) is boiling in water (with fresh chilies and black chili

sauce), three or four green plantains are grated. The plantain mass is added to the boiling meat and left cooking for an hour. The consistency of this dish varies depending on the proportions of plantain and meat. d) Maize gruel While the meat (raw or smoked) is boiling in water (with fresh chilies and black chili sauce), one or two corn ears are ground in the wheel mill. The flour is added to the boiling water. The consistency of this dish varies depending on the proportions of maize and meat and on how fine the maize was ground. e) Stews made with manioc extracts instead of water The manioc juice obtained during the preparation of manioc bread is boiled for an hour (approximately) until the bitter manioc poisonous fumes dissipate. The Meat (raw or 224

smoked) is then added to this manioc juice, seasoned with fresh chilies and boiled for an hour (approximately). 4) SNACKS a) Renealmia snacks The inside of renealmia fruits seasoned with salt and black chili sauce are cooked in a pan for 30 minutes (approximately). The red mass is then rubbed on manioc or corn bread, the seeds are separate from the flesh (which sticks onto the bread) and thrown away. b) Snacks of edible larvae (calandra palmarum) The larvae may be eaten raw or cooked. Raw, they are rubbed in salt and eaten with bread. Cooked, they are fried in a pan in their own fat and eaten with bread and black chili sauce. c) Smoked meat snacks Small pieces of cold smoked meat are put in a flat plat with water, salt and a few squashed fresh chilies and are eaten with bread.

225

226

APPENDIX 3: AIRO-PAI SHAMANIC SONGS 1) STERILITY SONG (Chapter 3) 1 Omehu nomisipi huëhu mefle yure Huecosi mancare huëhuëde 2 3 Cuine yeque tuahuë 4 lfloque yure 5 Jëfla nomiopi huëhuë me/Ye 6 Yeque huecosi hua 'io 7 Saye! ifiajena ncaque 8 Yeque tuahuë huëhuë daye 9 Hueco nomione jaduye 10 Uncuade jadude 11 Sejefle ?nafiapi uncuade 12 Inajo soode 13 Jadude irtaje flujë i/lane 14 Jadude uncuarene cunane 15 uncuqje flui/le 16 71 iflejen palo cadato me/Ye 17 Umuturu mafia 18 Cueone pale que mafia 19 ifiaje nëcaye

2) THE SONG OF THE LIVING PEOPLE (Chapter 4) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

Yeque mafia do,ipe nca menquë PoM pone queeree queeree paico pajpi Cuine yeque :otamo Cuajpe nëca menque yocoti mafia cuajpë Mca menque Yocoti mafia cuajpt doi menque Sjene Paico huirisacapi nëca menque Paico yapepi nëca menque quërërJ Cuarsaye paani jeteyoje Cuatsaye duduna Uoton manca paime nëca menque Yeque mafia daipe Penca penca queeree queeree Mca menquë paico paj Cuine yeque totamo ne!ca menque iflaje Mcato Umuturu mafia jodë Cua'ëmanca Cuine yeque totamo iflaje nëcato Cua'emanca Paico mienpi jode sot! Sic :,v sic tro Yalcahuano sehue menque Yalcahuano ma/la huë'ej dayt! lflqut! yure Yocoti mafia coaijt! daiyJ i/Yque lye ma flare cuatsaye paicua

227

26 Cuatsaje ma penoa mafia jejejf paicua 27 Corotan campo tëca mafia, yeque coaffe poquere manca 28 lye mafia cuatsajë paicua wnu joya 'ë manca 29 Cuine yeque ma 'a iflafe duto 30 Cucuhuasi mafia pujeni 31 Yeque dodo huec mafia :ëoj ' duye 32 Yeque tëhui se ponëni iflajo jaepa mafia teojf duye 33 Paico paApi teoj duye 34 lye maflare cuatsaje ducua 35 Yeque mafia facona tintajë duye neca daijE 36 Yeque mafia jacopi inaye canihuë setëa jadude 37 QiapE pare maflare jejej jadude 38 Yityo mafia setE jadude 39 Paicojacopi huëri necade 40 Cua 'C manca se huCri necade 41 Paico ponse maflapi daUe 42 IflajjuC yure 3) SINGING TO ThE GROWING MAIZE PLANTS (Chapter 6)

1 Yeque mafia daiyt! nCcafC 2 Paico flasepi 3 Codo codo 4 Yeque mafia flao 5 uncuesojC duye 6 Jojo hueflapi 7 Yeque mafia cuiye duye 8 Sanca 1nC/e 9 Cafe duye 10 SiQtaa 11 Yequt! mafia quepedu ima nCcade 12 Yeque mafia jacopi 13 ojemafla sunsucona, sunsuye duye 14 Al deoye yeque mafia 15 Ayasoje 16 Yeque mafia sCflo nomisi mafia 17 Huiye yCque 18 Cafe yeque mafia 19 Nomisi eaye 20 Yequt! cajo cafta mafia 21 SequCresene 22 yeque mafia sjtufla 23 Jejenu oyona 24 Oyona atsaje duye 25 YequC mafia jacopi cootsocona atsaje duye 26 IflaquC yure 27 Paico flasepi 28 Huea pan nomipi 29 Yeqise sjtufla mafia 30 Nesequeresene duye s 228

Semi 31 32 Cuaë manca Ico se/Ia mafia 33 34 Cuae manca soje duye Yeque mafia uj mafia secoa necade 35 Seu seu 36 4) SINGING TO ThE GROWING MANIOC PLANTS (Chapter 6)

I 2 3

Jejejeje Yeque mafia jamupi SemwTa omej

yeque mafia cua 'C manca 4 iflaque yure 5 Paico janiupi 6 Iflaquena iflaje pipiefla soojC pae 7 Sequeque jadude 8 9 Mw mu! 10 Paico jamupi situpi 11 Soe soe 12 yooje dujCna Cua 'C manca 13 14 Jaco manca paico seni 15 Nëca i/IWo 16 Cua 'C manca Jerore Jaque manca paiquejaco manca paico 17 18 Yeque fia_cohuCo mafia huifuifle 19 Iflaque yure 20 Yeque mafia jamusj maflapi Paico papi sejeje necaye 21 22 Yeque mafia fla_cohueo mafia huijuifie 23 Jamusjfla coon! 24 Semesifla cooni huijui#Ie 25 YC'C manca coro mafia mesura aë'C 26 SiQ 27 Ye'e inanca aiC 28 jerore jaque manca paiqueni 29 Cuiye i/Ia_gui yure 30 Yeque mafia fla_cohuio mafia huUuifle caje cwjC duye Jejejejeje 31 Cuiye cuiye iflaque duye 32 5) ThE FISH

1 2

3 4 5 6

SONG (Chapter 7)

Ocuana siaya ocomepi Ocuaja'a necaneni daye iflafle Dayi i/Ia_jo Cupucupucupucupu Siaya ocomenpi necadoje i/Ia_jo Hualpi metade 229



7 Siaya oco deoto 8 Ocome deoto 9 Nëcaye iflacona hualpi m:ade 10 Yari siaye iflajo 11 Nenque nenque iflaje 12 M tacona pupi juade mone 13 Morn ocome deoto 14 Sayë ifiajo 15 Pisupi juoAk 16 Moju fluifie 17 Ocome deoro moje fluMe yeque 18 Cuji mftade 19 Hualpi mtacona, pacu mofle yeque 20 Moju Mane inahuanso mtaquena 21 Morn aijanqueaipi mofle 22 Ocome deoto 23 Daijë iflajo 24 Con moid 25 Saye iflajena 26 Huëhuëde iflane 27 Yeque iflato hue 'ej 28 Palo pase 'e Mane 29 cacaadi de necadoje iflane 30 Huea sunsure saisi huefla 31 Nëcawna iflajo 32 Tuide hua 'I Aflapeque 33 Tuiyena cantë tiquepe 34 Intl copa tota mancarepa 35 Tomencona hueapi 36 Tuiquena 37 Nëcajëna Aflapeque u!nquefle 38 Inti copa twnuni sajen! 39 Nëcadode da nëcadode tomene 40 Soe tome nëca iflgto 41 Soe tome nëca iflajo sia deo Jo! flacuarepa iflaje 42 1flgquë ujquena 43 Jijia iflque ulfie 44 Ngcua iflajo yehue yehue 45 iflaje uMe 46 Intl fat yëode uinque 47 Tëto daidi iflajo 48 Cuine yeco Jan tumufle 49 Tan tan tan sacu mëofle 50 Do tomefle ncato doye iflaM 51 Sa huëhui daique iflajo 52 Saita jene yeque hue 'e 53 Do, eta dadi 54 Huëhuë dayë i/lane 55 Teo mancapi ëtecone 56 iflajo teo mancapi 230

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